June 26, 2026 • 6:21 pm ET
In the premiere episode of Inflection Points with Frederick Kempe, Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe sits down with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington. Their conversation follows Rutte’s meetings with President Donald Trump at the White House and leaders on Capitol Hill, with less than two weeks to go until the NATO summit in Ankara.
Rutte, who became NATO secretary general in October 2024 after serving fourteen years as prime minister of the Netherlands, is leading the Alliance at one of the most consequential and dangerous moments in its 77-year history.
Kempe and Rutte discuss the historic importance of the Ankara summit, why NATO needs a defense industrial revolution, and how the Alliance can navigate transatlantic tensions amid a fragile peace in Iran, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and growing geopolitical uncertainty.
Listen to Inflection Points with Frederick Kempe wherever you get podcasts
About the podcast
Inflection Points with Frederick Kempe brings audiences inside candid conversations with the global leaders, experts, and influential thinkers shaping the future.
Hosted by Frederick Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council and long-time Wall Street Journal editor and reporter, each episode goes beyond the headlines to explore the forces driving geopolitics, economics, technological change, and global leadership.
Drawing on Kempe’s decades of experience as a journalist, author, and historian, as well as his personal relationships with many of today’s key decisionmakers, Inflection Points with Frederick Kempe offers intimate, substantive conversations with some of the world’s most thoughtful and influential actors.
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Image: Atlantic Council Front Page Conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
