ow does NATO meet emerging climate, geopolitical, and tech challenges? Just like a resilient, well–led company – but turbocharged given its extraordinary mandate.
NATO’s purpose—guaranteeing the security and freedom of its members—is achieved through both military and political means. Politically, NATO protects democratic values and supports cooperation among members, with the goal of building trust and preventing conflict. Militarily, NATO seeks peaceful resolutions to disputes but undertakes crisis–management operations when diplomacy fails, carried out under the collective defense clause. How does NATO carry out its extraordinary mission in this “polycrisis” (multiple, overlapping crises) “polyrisk” (multiple, multifaceted risks) world? How does NATO adapt to foreseeable and unforeseeable climate, geopolitical, and tech challenges?
The only way is to ensure organizational resilience. To achieve this, NATO political and military leadership must adopt an “exponential governance mindset.” NATO operates at the cutting of edge polycrisis challenges. Beyond having the necessary structures, practices, and policies set in place, NATO must have or adopt what I call the exponential governance mindset. This consists of:
Leadership. The entire NATO organization requires 360 tech governance. This allows leaders to connect the dots between what’s happening on the ground and headquarters, ensuring IT front liners work consistently on technology blessed by the top of the hierarchy.
Ethos. NATO should embed tech responsibility into the deployment of exponential and frontier technologies. This includes generative AI and autonomy especially given the lethal aspects of the mission ensuring there are ethicists involved at every step of policy formulation and execution.
Impact. Maximizing impact means key stakeholders are always in the loop. This is expressed in two senses: (1) consideration of impacted communities, employees, militaries and other vulnerable stakeholders are considered in policy-making and execution and (2) that kill switches are built into lethal tech like autonomous or semi–autonomous weapons.
Resilience. A resilient NATO knows that continuous overlapping risks and crises are and will be the norm for the time being. It responds by ensuring the whole of its scenario planning and contingencies are constantly updated and a deep and effective lessons learned culture pervades all incidents.
Foresight. NATO should prepare for disrupted futures with real time updating of a future–forward inclusive strategy that is fed new data and assessments continuously to ensure that all aspects of strategy and tactics are always at the ready.
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NATO resilience and the exponential governance mindset
Image by Marko Lovric from Pixabay
June 24, 2025
To adapt to foreseeable and unforeseeable climate, geopolitical, and tech challenges, NATO must bolster its organizational resilience. Doing so requires an “exponential governance mindset,” Andrea Bonime–Blanc writes.
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ow does NATO meet emerging climate, geopolitical, and tech challenges? Just like a resilient, well–led company – but turbocharged given its extraordinary mandate.
NATO’s purpose—guaranteeing the security and freedom of its members—is achieved through both military and political means. Politically, NATO protects democratic values and supports cooperation among members, with the goal of building trust and preventing conflict. Militarily, NATO seeks peaceful resolutions to disputes but undertakes crisis–management operations when diplomacy fails, carried out under the collective defense clause. How does NATO carry out its extraordinary mission in this “polycrisis” (multiple, overlapping crises) “polyrisk” (multiple, multifaceted risks) world? How does NATO adapt to foreseeable and unforeseeable climate, geopolitical, and tech challenges?
The only way is to ensure organizational resilience. To achieve this, NATO political and military leadership must adopt an “exponential governance mindset.” NATO operates at the cutting of edge polycrisis challenges. Beyond having the necessary structures, practices, and policies set in place, NATO must have or adopt what I call the exponential governance mindset. This consists of:
Leadership. The entire NATO organization requires 360 tech governance. This allows leaders to connect the dots between what’s happening on the ground and headquarters, ensuring IT front liners work consistently on technology blessed by the top of the hierarchy.
Ethos. NATO should embed tech responsibility into the deployment of exponential and frontier technologies. This includes generative AI and autonomy especially given the lethal aspects of the mission ensuring there are ethicists involved at every step of policy formulation and execution.
Impact. Maximizing impact means key stakeholders are always in the loop. This is expressed in two senses: (1) consideration of impacted communities, employees, militaries and other vulnerable stakeholders are considered in policy-making and execution and (2) that kill switches are built into lethal tech like autonomous or semi–autonomous weapons.
Resilience. A resilient NATO knows that continuous overlapping risks and crises are and will be the norm for the time being. It responds by ensuring the whole of its scenario planning and contingencies are constantly updated and a deep and effective lessons learned culture pervades all incidents.
Foresight. NATO should prepare for disrupted futures with real time updating of a future–forward inclusive strategy that is fed new data and assessments continuously to ensure that all aspects of strategy and tactics are always at the ready.
