such transatlantic luminaries as madeleine albright, steve hadley, solana, david milliband. so three former secretary-generals of nato have signed on to this. they were consulted throughout this effort and the report has benefitted from their guidance, their wisdom, and supports broad findings if not each and every one of its specific recommendatio recommendations. before i turn the floor over to nick, i briefly want to call attention to another atlantic council effort that i think is complimentary to nick's report, the atlantic council foreign policy magazine survey on the future of nato. the council and foreign policy built a is yosurvey which we se some of the most senior figures in the transatlantic community, get their thoughts on the future of the alliance in light of some of the challenges i just mentioned. i think the survey can give us a sense of the political obstacles facing the alliance which this report argues must be overcome and you can -- if you didn't grab a copy of the survey coming in, then please do so on the way out. now before i hand the floor to nick,