In late April, I'll travel to Berlin to give one of the final speeches of my four years as the Supreme Allied Commander for NATO's global operations.In what will be a bit of a valedictory address, I shall talk about the challenges the Alliance faces in the time ahead -- there are many. I'll also offer some thoughts and solutions that I hope will be helpful to my successor and the team that will continue the voyage at NATO headquarters.

NATO’s relationship with Russia is a complicated partnership with many facets.

I spent much of a day earlier this week 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle, high up on the western coast of the massive island of Greenland – indeed, the largest island in the world -- in the north Atlantic.

In Afghanistan I'm just flying towards Europe over the Black Sea, and the wind is blowing hard, creating white caps on the surface of that vast inland body of water.

It has been said that "to know another language is to know another life." In this rapidly globalizing 21st century world, that simple statement summarizes the gift of regional expertise, cultural understanding, and the ability to communicate directly in the language of an ally, partner or colleague.

I spent a couple of good days in Bern, the capital of Switzerland last week. The Swiss, are -- of course -- famously neutral in terms of international politics. Yet they are good partners with NATO in places like Kosovo in the Balkans, where we see over 200 exceptionally professional Swiss soldiers supporting peace by ensure a safe and secure environment in Kosovo.

As always, here are ten books I found enjoyable, informative, and interesting from my reading list in 2012. Enjoy good reading in 2013, and please feel free to also check out the EUCOM reading list with nearly 100 books that help us all understand the European region.

Today was the stand-up of a new command for NATO, Land Component Command Izmir, which will be a 28-nation, three-star enterprise led by an energetic American Lieutenant General, Ben Hodges.

The idea is to keep a small number of our US airmen "on the ground" in Poland, while we rotate in F-16 fighters and C-130 transport aircraft for mutual training together. This is the first full time presence of US service members in Poland.

Last week, I had a chance to spend three days in Israel, observing our largest-ever defense exercise with our close allies and friends in their country.

Just back from Sweden and Finland -- not NATO allies, but certainly premier partners both. I visited both in my hat as Commander of US European Command.

In the week ahead, I'll focus on two topics that don't always get a huge amount of attention, but are very important: piracy and missile defense.

As we wrap up high summer, it's a sensible time to look ahead at the fall and think about the big tasks facing the NATO Alliance and US European Command. The Olympics and the Jubilee fade to memory, and hopefully most folks have managed to break away for a short vacation to recharge. The autumn will be a busy time.

While I certainly sympathize with the thrust of John Kuehn's title in his energetic article about the situation in Afghanistan, I'd like to offer a somewhat different perspective from my position as the Supreme Allied Commander for all NATO operations, including the 140,000, 50-nation coalition in Afghanistan.

I was recently asked on-line about "how to brief a senior officer?” Great question!

As NATO finishes up the successful Chicago Summit and moves into the summer months, several key issues are bubbling.

As the North Atlantic Council finished up the 25th Summit it is clearly evident that it was a summit of commitment. The Alliance made the commitment to complete transition in Afghanistan and to support Afghans in achieving a stable future. It also made the commitment to ensuring NATO is capable of dealing with 21st century challenges, as well as the commitment to further strengthen connections with our global partners. Most importantly, the Chicago Summit demonstrated our commitment to each other - the unbreakable bond between North America and Europe, which remains the bedrock of our security.

As we head into the summer, I went back to some of the great reads of the last century in fiction. Some are famous and well known to generations of high school and college students -- but might deserve a re-read. Others are less well known to broad audiences.

We've just concluded the two big warm-up events that have brought into focus what we'll be doing at the NATO Summit in mid-May, scheduled to be held in Chicago.

Today, Baden-Württemberg (BW), Germany celebrates the 60th anniversary of officially becoming a state. I heartily congratulate them on this historic occasion.

In the world of security, we are generally focused on "risk." We worry about the chances of war, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the likelihood of a ballistic missile attack, or the possibility of a biologic contagion. Understanding risk allows us to calculate how much we should spend on defense compared to what our potential opponents are spending.

The United States and European militaries have a history of enduring partnerships and respect based on mutual core values and ideals including democracy, human rights, freedom of speech, and the right to liberty and justice for all.

As always, Afghanistan presents a mixed picture; but I remain cautiously optimistic that we can execute our planned transition to Afghan security responsibility across the country by the end of 2014. We are continuing to build on a successful 2011 from a security perspective.

After a busy week of meetings and presentations in London, Berlin, and Washington DC, I am beginning to see the outline of key NATO conversations at the summit in May.

As I look back on 2011, I think we had a reasonably good year in the operational sense. Lots of good “end of the year” retrospectives are appearing in various magazines and on-line sites, and I thought I’d chip in with my own top five operational moments for the Alliance this past year – and a hope that it stays at least relatively quiet between now and the end of the year.Stavridis

I was speaking this past fall to a group of Cadets and Midshipmen, young college students bound for military careers. They asked me to talk a little about my career and what I’d learned along the way. After pausing and thinking for a minute, I realized the three events that swam into focus were all moments of failure. Yet from each of them I learned something valuable that I still carry around in my mind.