NATO’s Meaning and Existence by Yunus Emre Ozigci

This is the most anticipated book of 2026, capable of reanimating NATO’s true potential: With its strong contextual framing and deeply contemplative and ontologically sound analysis, it has the potential to become a point of reference and a game-changer in the foreign policy community. Clearly, Turkey has more to offer than Ahmet Davutoğlu’s “Strategic Depth”, as Yunus Emre Ozigci's NATO’s “Meaning and Existence” (2026) is about to take the policymaking community by storm. Ozigci’s analytical prowess in policymaking and diplomatic pursuits resonates with his strategic insights. This publication can save NATO from its current Heideggerian phase of thrownness in the world by offering a profoundly contemplative inquiry into how this organization's identity is affected by an unstimulating, predictable bureaucratic status quo that still rewards obedience over originality despite facing geostrategic disaster.

This can be a playbook that might save NATO from drifting into irrelevance; ultimately, his diplomatic experience and philosophical insights have given Ozigci a rare capacity to playfully engage with, reformulate, and reconceptualize ideas in ways that should encourage future NATO leaders to embrace diverse, outside-the-box thinking to freely question policy and focus on its true defensive nature. The author grounds NATO’s existence in intersubjective meaning rather than material objectivity, potentially reintroducing it to the broader academic and policymaking community worldwide.

This profound, artful reflection also offers a practical cognitive innovation that should surprise NATO’s adversaries, even those who assume they can think nine steps in advance. Ultimately, this is also potentially the best philosophical insight into NATO’s enduring capacity for adaptation to multilayered existential dilemmas arising from bipolar, unipolar, and multipolar systems of power.

Dr. Piotr Pietrzak

In Statu Nascendi Think Tank, Sofia, Bulgaria

[…] His “NATO’s Meaning and Existence” (2026), like his previous publications, does not follow the standard script of recycled, uninspiring solutions drawn from outdated textbooks to address contemporary problems. Instead, it offers genuine insight into modern foreign policy, informed by decades of diplomatic experience: he currently serves in Turkey’s diplomatic corps in one of the most geostrategically significant regions of Africa. This book provides a contemplative critique of NATO’s nature, in contrast to conventional political textbooks that often repeat flattering slogans without critical reflection. […]

[Extract from book review on the ‘Journal of Liberty and International Affairs’ 12 (1):200-203. Reviewer: Piotr Pietrzak. https://doi.org/10.47305/jlia.2026.2126]