A leading Chinese think tank has warned that the transition of NATO to a more Europe-led structure, dubbed “NATO 3.0,” will not resolve the strategic rifts between Washington and European capitals. The China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) published a report on Monday, July 15th, 2026, cautioning that NATO’s expanding military and defense cooperation with Asia-Pacific countries such as Japan could increasingly put the alliance at odds with the evolving multipolar world order.

The report follows NATO’s recent summit in Ankara, where the NATO 3.0 concept was formally adopted as the alliance’s new strategic direction. This shift involves Europe assuming greater responsibility for conventional defense, while the United States recalibrates its global commitments. CICIR characterizes this evolution as a new phase in NATO’s history—from Cold War-era territorial defense against the Soviet Union, through out-of-area interventions, to a Europe-centered model focused on home defense and deterrence.

The think tank notes that this transition is largely driven by the Trump administration’s renewed emphasis on burden-sharing. Washington’s National Security Strategy, released in late 2025, prioritizes the western hemisphere and pressures European allies to take “primary responsibility” for their own conventional defense.

According to CICIR, these developments risk leaving NATO increasingly misaligned with the accelerating multipolar dynamics in global politics, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.

Sources