SMU Tower Center presents– 2025 National Security Symposium: U.S. Military Alliances: Where Do We Stand? (And Where Do We Go From  Here?)

The 2025 National Security Symposium will explore the state of U.S. military alliances and their strategic direction in an era of global uncertainty, as security threats are intensifying across the globe and policymakers in Washington are reassessing the U.S. commitment to traditional allies in Europe and Asia. Through panels on NATO and the Asia-Pacific, leading scholars and practitioners will examine the challenges facing America’s defense partnerships, from the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on transatlantic cooperation to the evolving nature of U.S. commitments in Asia against the backdrop of an increasingly assertive China. The goal is to foster informed dialogue and critical reflection on how the network of U.S. alliances, which has served America well for over half a century, can adapt to effectively meet a more complex security environment amidst new geopolitical realities.

 

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025

Location and Time:

1:30 p.m.– 2:00 p.m. Registration

2:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Event

 

HT Ballroom, Ground Floor, Hughes-Trigg Student Center, 3140 Dyer St., Dallas, TX  75205

Parking: Binkley Garage, 3105 Binkley Ave., Dallas, TX  75205.  For more accessibility questions email us at tower@smu.edu.

 

We still have a good number of seats available for panel 1 on NATO and panel 2 on Asia; availability for the keynote address is limited.

Registration is required and the seats are first come, first served.

Please click below for registration.

 

1:30 - 2:00 p.m. Registration

 

2:00 - 3:40 p.m. Panel One: Europe and NATO

- Prof. Jason Davidson (University of Mary Washington), “NATO's Challenges: From the Russia-Ukraine War to Trump”

- Prof. Heidi Hardt (UC Irvine), “Adaptation in the Transatlantic Alliance: The Impacts of the Ukraine Crisis on NATO”

- Prof. Sten Rynning (University of Southern Denmark), “Geopolitics and the Future of the Atlantic Alliance”

Moderator: Lt. Gen. Steven M. Shepro

 

4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Panel Two: Asia And the Pacific

- Prof. Victor Cha (Georgetown University), “The Custodial Burden of Alliance Resiliency in Asia”

- Prof. Thomas Christensen (Columbia University), “U.S. Policy and Taiwan's Security”

- Prof. Michael Cohen (Australian National University), “If we’re a weak and unreliable and untrustworthy friend: Why Australia's past with the US-Australia alliance will not be its future”

 Moderator: Admiral Patrick M. Walsh

 

6:00 - 8:00 p.m. Keynote Address and Dinner

- Dr. Kori Schake (American Enterprise Institute), "The Future of US Military Alliances"

Moderator: Prof. Stefano Recchia, John G. Tower Distinguished Chair in International Politics, SMU

 

Featuring:

Victor Cha, Distinguished University Professor, Georgetown University

Victor Cha is Distinguished University Professor and DS Song-KF Chair in the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and President of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at CSIS in Washington DC. He previously served on the Defense Policy Board for the Biden administration and on the National Security Council for the George W. Bush administration. He is the author of nine books including The Black Box: Demystifying the Study of Korean Unification and North Korea (Columbia, 2025). His newest book is China’s Weaponization of Trade: Resistance Through Collective Resilience (Columbia, January 2026) with E. Kim and A. Lim. 

 

Thomas J. Christensen, Professor, Columbia University

Thomas J. Christensen is the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations and Director of the China and the World Program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and the Pritzker Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. He was previously the William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics at Princeton University. From 2006 to 2008, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs with responsibility for relations with China, Taiwan, and Mongolia. His research and teaching focus on China’s foreign relations, the international relations of East Asia, and international security. He has also taught at Cornell University and MIT. He received his B.A. from Haverford College, M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. from Columbia University. He was presented with a Distinguished Public Service Award by the United States Department of State.

 

Michael Cohen, Associate Professor, Australian National University

Michael Cohen is an Associate Professor and Academic Director at the National Security College, Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. His research has been published in the scholarly journals International Organization, Journal of Peace Research, European Journal of International Relations, European Journal of International Security, Journal of Global Security Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis, Asian Security, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, The Non-Proliferation Review, Armed Forces and Society, Australian Journal of International Affairs, and International Security (correspondence). His first book, When Proliferation Causes Peace: The Psychology of Nuclear Crises, was blurbed by Robert Jervis as a "significant contribution to our knowledge." He has completed a second book manuscript titled Ambiguous Alliance: Credible Commitment and Military Intervention in Interstate Wars. From September 2022 through January 2023, he was a Partners Across the Globe Fellow at NATO Defense College, Rome.

 

Jason Davidson, Professor, University of Mary Washington

Jason Davidson is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. He is also a professor of political science and international affairs and director of the Security and Conflict Studies Program at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He is the author of five books:  NATO After Russia's Invasion of Ukraine (Georgetown University Press, 2025); America’s Entangling Alliances: 1778 to the Present (Georgetown University Press, 2020); with Fabrizio Coticchia, Italian Foreign Policy During Matteo Renzi’s Government: A Domestically Focused Outsider and the World (Lexington Books, 2019); The Origins of Revisionist and Status-quo States (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); and America’s Allies and War: Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). His articles have been published in peer-reviewed academic journals such as Foreign Policy Analysis, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Contemporary Security Policy, Modern Italy, Security Studies, and the Nonproliferation Review.

 

Heidi Hardt, Associate Professor, University of California, Irvine

Heidi Hardt is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Irvine and a non-resident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council. Her research focuses on NATO, US and European security, alliance politics, organizational change, learning, international organizations, gender and climate security. Hardt has authored two books:  NATO’s Lessons in Crisis: Institutional Memory in International Organization (Oxford 2018) and Time to React: The Efficiency of International Organizations in Crisis Response (Oxford 2014). Her scholarship appears or is forthcoming in edited volumes and journals, including Security Studies, Journal of Politics, PS: Political Science & Politics, PLOS One, European Journal of International Relations, International Politics, Review of International Organizations, Contemporary Security Policy, European Security, among others. NSF, Fulbright, NATO, Carnegie and IGCC have funded her research. As a CFR International Affairs Fellow, she worked for the State Department (NATO Desk), a US Senator and US Congresswoman. She completed a CFR term membership, has been a Fulbright Schuman scholar and is on the executive board of the World Affairs Council of Orange County.

 

Stefano Recchia, John G. Tower Distinguished Chair in International Politics and National Security, SMU

Stefano Recchia is Distinguished Chair in international politics, director of studies, and director of the national security program at the Tower Center. Recchia’s new book, Strategies for Approval: Building Support for Military Intervention at the at the UN Security Council (Yale University Press, 2025), investigates how the United States and other major powers can reap the legitimacy benefits of UN approval for the use of force when veto-wielding permanent members like China and Russia are fiercely opposed at the outset. Professor Recchia has also published several other books and many articles in leading scholarly journals. His research has been funded by numerous bodies, including the Brookings Institution, Dickey Center at Dartmouth College, and Fulbright Commission.

 

Sten Rynning, Professor, University of Southern Denmark

Sten Rynning is professor of War Studies and director of the Danish Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Southern Denmark. He is an expert on NATO, transatlantic security issues, and European geopolitics and a former visiting fellow of the American University and the NATO Defence College. In 2021 he was made Knight of the Order of Dannebrog. Sten Rynning’s publications include NATO in Afghanistan: The Liberal Disconnect (Stanford University Press 2012), Transforming Military Power since the Cold War: Britain, France, and the United States, 1991-2012 (co-author with Theo Farrell and Terry Terriff, Cambridge University Press 2013), South Asia and the Great Powers: International Relations and Regional Security (editor, IB Tauris 2017), and War Time: Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power (co-editor with Olivier Schmitt and Amelie Theussen, Brookings 2021). His most recent book is NATO: From Cold War to Ukraine – A History of the World’s Most Powerful Alliance (Yale UP 2024 & 2025).

 

Kori Schake, Senior Fellow and Director of Foreign and Defense Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute

Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).  Before joining AEI, Dr. Schake was the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. She has had a distinguished career in government, working at the US State Department, the US Department of Defense, and the National Security Council at the White House.  She was also senior policy advisor on the 2008 McCain campaign. She has taught at Stanford, West Point, Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and the University of Maryland. Dr. Schake is the author of five books her latest book is The State and the Soldier: a History of Civil-Military Relations in the United States (Polity Books, 2025). Dr. Schake has been widely published in policy journals and the popular press, including in CNN.com, Foreign Affairs, Politico, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. She is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and War on the Rocks. Dr. Schake has a PhD and MA in government and politics from the University of Maryland, as well as an MPM from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy. Her BA in international relations is from Stanford University.

 

Steve Shepro, Lt. Gen., U.S. Air Force, ret.

Lt. Gen. Steven M. Shepro (USAF, Ret.) served as Deputy Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, the most senior military structure in the Alliance, from 2016 to 2019. In this role, he was a principal advisor to the NATO Secretary General and steered policy, strategy, decision-making, and defense capabilities. Lt. Gen. Shepro was commissioned in 1984 as a distinguished graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and is an Olmsted Scholar fluent in six languages. He is a command pilot with more than 3,000 flying hours in fighters, helicopters, and tactical airlift with over 600 combat hours in numerous operations. He has commanded multiple operational wings, groups and squadrons, and led frontline Battlefield Airmen in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He has served in senior roles in Allied Staff, Joint Staff and Air Staff over strategy and interagency policy development, aerospace operations, training and support, and global partnerships. Lt. Gen. Shepro is a fellow at the Tower Center and a Senior Mentor for the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy.

 

Patrick Walsh, Admiral, U.S. Navy, Ret.

Admiral Patrick M. Walsh, Ph.D. (U.S. Navy, Ret.) is a distinguished naval leader and strategist with a career spanning over three decades of service to the United States. A native of Dallas, Admiral Walsh graduated with honors from Jesuit College Preparatory and from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1977. He later earned a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, graduating first in his class. During his naval career, Admiral Walsh held numerous key operational and command positions, including leadership of the U.S. 5th Fleet, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, and the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He also served as the 35th Vice Chief of Naval Operations and previously commanded the “Blue Angels” and several carrier air wings and strike groups. His strategic assignments included roles in the White House Fellowship Program, the Joint Staff, and at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he chaired the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law. Admiral Walsh’s many awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Defense Superior Service Medal, and Legion of Merit, among others, recognizing his leadership and contributions to national security and naval excellence.

 

Invitation image: Navy Day Ceremony- Soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment “FIRST STRIKE”, 2nd Brigade Combat Team “STRIKE”, 101st Airborne Division, joined with NATO allies and partners for the Romanian Navy Day ceremony in Constanta, Romania, Aug. 15, 2022. 101st units will support V Corps mission to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank and engage in multinational exercises with partners across the European continent to reassure our Nations allies. Credit: Army Staff Sgt. Malcolm Cohens-Ashley  https://www.war.gov/Multimedia/Photos/igphoto/2003060216/

 

Invitation image: Navy Day Ceremony- Soldiers with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment “FIRST STRIKE”, 2nd Brigade Combat Team “STRIKE”, 101st Airborne Division, joined with NATO allies and partners for the Romanian Navy Day ceremony in Constanta, Romania, Aug. 15, 2022. 101st units will support V Corps mission to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank and engage in multinational exercises with partners across the European continent to reassure our Nations allies.