From James Joyner, the New Atlanticist:  Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, generated quite the buzz with his proclamation last week that, "The most significant threat to our national security is our debt."  The same could be said for the NATO alliance.

From DPA:   Poland's participation in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan is so expensive that it is hampering efforts to modernize the country's armed forces, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said on Wednesday, on his first visit to NATO headquarters.

From Anna Ringstrom, Reuters:  Poland needs to stay committed in Afghanistan until the job there is done, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters on the eve of a meeting with the new Polish president.

As the dog days of summer head toward autumn, NATO is in the process of what could be considered a major face lift.

From Slobodan Lekic, the CP:  When President Charles de Gaulle kicked NATO out of France in 1966, the alliance built a temporary home in Brussels in just 29 weeks. Permanent digs should be finished just short of half a century later.

From the Economist:  In the heart of NATO’s military headquarters, SHAPE, near the Belgian city of Mons, an unspoken revolution is taking place: planners are thinking about how to defend eastern European members from Russian attack.

From Dave Graham, Reuters:  The biggest cuts in military spending in decades in Germany, Britain and France could encourage Europe to move closer to a joint defence policy to pool resources and eliminate costly duplication.

From Sam Nunn, Igor Ivanov, and Wolfgang Ischinger, the International Herald Tribune:  No other initiative has more near-term potential to ease the NATO-Russian relationship out of its petulant, impacted state, while giving a positive jolt to the revived but tentative