g. Enhanced Collaboration with and Access to European NATO Innovation. The United States should directly engage with NATO’s Allied Command Transformation in order to collaborate on innovation critical to multinational coalition operations. Moreover, to obtain better access to innovation in NATO countries and enhance our collaboration, DoD should increase U.S. funding for science and technology exchanges as well as prototyping. We should better utilize the foreign offices of our defense laboratories by providing them funding to work with foreign innovators and undertake more joint projects on transformational technologies with NATO partners.

We need to meaningfully address NATO’s chronic ends-means mismatch and make burden sharing more equitable in order to combat discordant voices regarding U.S. engagement in NATO. While there is no silver bullet, there are a number of realistic steps that can be taken, which, as discussed above, go beyond the normal admonitions and summit statements. These steps can truly make a difference over time. But the critical issue will be whether there is sufficient will on each side of the Atlantic to adopt some of these measures.

Jeffrey P. Bialos is a partner in the law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and an adjunct Senior Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at John Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Affairs and in other senior positions during the Clinton administration. He was awarded the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal.

Image: U.S. paratroopers conduct joint training with Estonian army partners during Exercise Steadfast Jazz. Flickr/U.S. Army Europe.