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At this current time, the NATO alliance is facing a road block. Forced to juggle a multitude of rising threats across the board, the member states have attempted in vain to reassemble and coordinate what one could depict as a jigsaw puzzle.
 
The ultimate challenge lies in the fact that no one body has managed to obtain sufficient foresight to be able to predict what the end result of this Alliance should look like. Could a jigsaw aficionado reassemble the pieces of a puzzle without having any clue as to the end picture? This is truly the problematic behind the NATO Alliance's inability to formulate a complete and comprehensive strategic doctrine.

In order to regain its rank amongst the power brokering international institutions, NATO will require more than a superficial pledge of renewed cooperation amongst allies. NATO needs reform, both on the infrastructural level and on the political level. The patch and mend era of the post-Cold War period is long gone.

For such an alliance to be effective and respected by its respective public opinions and challenging world leaders, it cannot afford to be caught off guard with every rising international incident. NATO will need credible projectable forces as well as a flexible and knowledgeable foreign policy apparatus, where allies know what can be brought to the table, and how and when they will be provided.
 
The world has changed drastically since the end of the Cold War, NATO cannot afford to wait behind its red lines, and it must take proactive measures to pre-empt rising threats. The following analysis provides an assessment of the current capabilities as well as recommendations to improve the efficiency and credibility of the NATO Alliance. Short term answers are no longer sufficient; the Alliance must plan for the future and take the necessary measures to remain relevant beyond 2020.

Christopher Davis is currently a research fellow at the Bertelsmann Foundation.