NATO's new Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North-Atlantic (DIANA) initiative marks a broad effort to speed up the alliance’s adoption of emerging and disruptive technologies by strategically strengthening technical cooperation between the member nations—and with commercial startups and other non-governmental organizations—through a novel network of research hubs and test centers across Europe and North America. 

An early challenge for the new board of DIANA, according to Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, will likely involve puzzling out and reconciling the varying technological demands of the 30 independent countries that make up NATO, as well as their many military components, which are also having to adapt to what’s happening in the Ukraine-Russia war.

“When we look at NATO, now, there’s very different priorities,” Williams says. “And they’re all pretty valid—but it also depends on where you sit.”