Guest Post by ASP Adjunct Fellow August Cole

There are times when you step onto Chicago’s Lake Michigan beaches with sand at your feet and azure water stretching to the horizon, it doesn’t feel like the Midwest.

It is a view reminiscent of the Mediterranean.

Just one of the reasons Chicago was a fitting host for the recent NATO summit. While it’s hard for the world’s myriad geopolitical problems to compete with the distraction of Wrigley Field, the conference in Chicago tackled crucial questions about the alliance’s future. Some questions are existential, such as how committed European countries really are to a common defense that won’t come cheap. Others are practical, including how to orchestrate a decisive withdrawal from Afghanistan.

For all the significance the White House made of the U.S. strategic pivot from the Middle East and Central Asia toward the Pacific, the Mediterranean region must be the urgent priority for the U.S.

Found among the nations lining the Mediterranean are historic democratic promise and the seeds of economic calamity.

Consider the democratic political transformation throughout the Mediterranean nations of Northern Africa. Historic elections in Egypt are testing the promise of the Arab Spring. Libya’s emerging political path has been secured, in part, by NATO airpower. NATO offers the U.S. an operational framework for multilateral military operations and humanitarian engagement in a region where American intentions are under constant suspicion. NATO’s role in a Syria intervention is up in the air, for now.

Meanwhile, Europe’s politicians are girding for Greece’s exit from euro. The economic fallout among the world’s banks and investors presents a frightening prospect. Just as spooky is the sure-to-follow political chaos that will undercut Europe’s collective foreign policy interests. This includes NATO, which counts Greece as a 60-year member. Should Greece bail out on the euro, the move would start a nation-by-nation unraveling of a European political-economic compact connecting northern countries with southern ones in unprecedented ways. Italy and Spain are also at risk. Once lost, the euro’s binding elements will be hard to replicate with either a single currency or a unity of purpose.

While the best baseball park in the world and picturesque views from Chicago’s lakeshore make the world-class city an excellent venue, the best reason to host the NATO summit there was that it was on President Obama’s home turf.

Many of the most pressing issues President Obama faces this year, at what will be either the finale of a single term or the start of a second round as president, are tied to what the U.S. should do after more than 10 years of war. This dynamic is behind myriad questions facing the country’s political and military leaders. Among them are figuring out the kinds of fighters the U.S. Air Force should fly to how large America’s land forces should be to determining the scope of the U.S. intelligence community’s role in conducting military-like operations. The value of NATO is part of that examination, too.

This conference presented a mutual moment to recognize the Mediterranean has deepening strategic fault lines. They are not over the horizon, as in the Pacific. They are immediate and may hobble America’s closest allies. These past few days, there was nowhere better for President Obama to see NATO’s role in addressing them than from Chicago.

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