Former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg’s new memoir lays bare how Washington choreographed almost every step the Western military alliance has taken over the past decade – from headline politics like defence-spending targets to the nerdiest technical adjustments of the organisation’s machinery.
In On My Watch, Stoltenberg revisits the events that defined global security over the past fifteen years. Packed with inside details, it charts his decade as NATO secretary-general, from 2014 until autumn 2024 – a period spanning Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the alliance’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and NATO’s enlargement to include Finland and Sweden.
Across those years, and the wildly different American presidencies of Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, the memoir consistently depicts the United States as both conductor and metronome of the Alliance.
The Leader
Stoltenberg recalls the 2016 Warsaw Summit when Obama, the US president, steered messaging way from confrontation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and towards shared democratic values – a theme that still echoes through NATO’s corridors today.
Anyone used to roaming the corridors of the world’s largest military alliance knows Washington sets the beat while the rest follow. Close to no one would admit that on the record – diplomats and civil servants work very hard to avoid sharing details that would undermine that which is most precious to them, the “unity” of the alliance. Discretion is sacred. Unity is prized.
Contrary to the EU’s dynamic, where member countries clash publicly as part of the political process, NATO allies pride themselves on singing from the same hymn sheet.
Stoltenberg’s book breaks the silence. It lifts the veil on how NATO operates and maintains cohesion even amid discord.
During his first White House term, Trump shaped NATO’s story around his own perceived victories. At the chaotic 2018 Brussels Summit, Trump publicly bashed Angela Merkel’s Germany for failing to meet the then-mandated 2% of GDP on defence. A handwritten note reproduced in the book shows Trump instructing Stoltenberg to say: “Because of Pres. Trump we have raised an additional 33 billion dollars.”
Without fail, Stoltenberg attributed this lift in defence spending to Trump – even though the former alliance chief says himself in the book that correlation cannot be proven.
The handwritten note to Stoltenberg pictured in the book on the summit’s stationery also gives him the instruction to say: “We have committed to Pres Trump to raise this number substantially this year.”
Others pushed back. Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, he recalls, rebuked Trump behind closed doors, telling him Denmark lost proportionally more troops in Afghanistan than the US. “He refused to tell the families of the dead soldiers their sacrifice was worthless because Denmark did not meet the 2% target”, Stoltenberg writes.
Behind Stoltenberg’s usually impassive public image, the memoir reveals flashes of emotion and self-doubt, showing both Europe’s dependence on US leadership and the depth of NATO’s instinct to appear united.
Stoltenberg still abides by that tradition. During the messy withdrawal of Afghanistan in August 2021 under the Biden administration, lips stayed as tight as possible.
Stoltenberg describes the withdrawal as “chaotic”, but does not blame the US, instead painting the picture of a helpless Europe, unable to save its local staff and forced to leave suddenly, after decades of involvement.
When mentioning his proposal to set up long-term financial support to Ukraine at the Washington Summit, he states the US refused to back the idea, without saying more.
The Deal-maker
US influence was most striking in not only sinking deals, but also in making them happen.
The Biden administration, initially reluctant to negotiate Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession, was ultimately drawn in – even offering Turkey the prospect of F-16 fighter jets to secure its approval.
But even on the technical level, the US would get involved. France had long resisted any change to the cost-sharing formula for the alliance’s common budget, until President Biden personally convinced Emmanuel Macron to yield.
Biden’s personal involvement also came into play when he single-handedly extended Stoltenberg’s mandate for an extra year, he recounts, cutting short a politically charged process that fell at a high point of the war in Ukraine.
That decision put on ice his own ambition to be the Central Bank governor in his home country of Norway – a role that would have made him custodian of its $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund.
Stoltenberg stayed longer than he ever thought. His story shows how much the US military and political power shaped European security in the past decade.
Sparing no drama, Stoltenberg invites us in the room, pulls up an invisible chair, and seats us at the negotiation table of global security.
Wonks will enjoy reading between the lines. All will appreciate the theatricality of world leader-level gossiping.
Quotes are translated from the French version of the book: « Vigie du Monde », Jens Stoltenberg, Flammarion, €24.90.
(cp, aw)
