Wildfire signs Reuters columnist Peter Apps’ history and future of NATO 

Wildfire has acquired A Sacred Obligation: The History and Future of NATO by Reuters columnist Peter Apps. 

Editorial Director Philip Connor has acquired World All Language rights (inc. audio) from Antony Topping at Greene & Heaton for publication in Spring 2024, to coincide with the 75th anniversary of NATO in April.

A Sacred Obligation is a history and current affairs title looking at both the big picture and the human stories behind the big geopolitical shifts of the post-war period, the publisher says, adding that it will cover the aftermath of the Second World World War, the Cold War, German reunification, Trump’s threats to withdraw from the organisation and NATO’s current role in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Bringing to life key individuals and events, Wildfire continues that the book will use the story of NATO as a way of tracing the major geopolitical developments of the 20th century and asks how NATO will overcome the pressures of conflicting interests and remain relevant going forward. The title is a reference to Joe Biden’s 2022 comment that NATO’s collective defence is “a sacred obligation”.

Peter Apps is global affairs commentator at Reuters, a British Army reservist and executive director of pop-up think tank the Project for Study of the 21st Century (PS21). He has reported from across the world as Reuters political risk and global defence correspondent, and was appointed a Reuters columnist in 2016. 

Apps undertook reserve military training with both the British and US armies and more recently as a UK specialist army reservist, providing advice, analysis and training and serving two full-time tours of duty during the Covid-19 pandemic and Ukraine war. He is the author of two Kindle Singles, Before Ebola (2014) and Churchill in the Trenches (2015).

Connor said: “We’re thrilled to be publishing Peter’s full-length debut, A Sacred Obligation. NATO is the perfect vehicle to tell the story of many different fascinating historical characters and crucial political events through the second half of the 20th century and up to the present day. Peter possesses the rare blend of the highest journalistic credentials and real-life roles that makes him the ideal author for this project, and well placed to imagine what the future might hold for NATO and its member countries.”

Apps commented: “The history of NATO is a fantastic story, from its beginnings in the Cold War to the unpredictability of the 2020s – and full of fantastic characters, from Churchill, Eisenhower and Trump to the mid-level officials who devised the North Atlantic Treaty and response to Vladimir Putin. The 75th anniversary of NATO gives the opportunity to look both back and forward, and I’m delighted to be working with Wildfire and Greene & Heaton to bring this all together.”