About the Author: Ivo Daalder serves as U.S. Ambassador to NATO.

At the just-concluded NATO Summit in Chicago, the largest gathering of NATO nations and partners since the Alliance was founded, we delivered on the promises we made at our historic Lisbon Summit 18 months earlier.

First of all, we added details to the Lisbon roadmap for how we will gradually and responsibly wind down the NATO mission in Afghanistan. By the middle of 2013, every district and province in Afghanistan will have Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in the lead for security, with NATO forces in a supporting role. By the end of 2014, the Afghans will be fully responsible for their own security, and the NATO-led combat mission will come to an end. But our engagement in Afghanistan will continue after 2014, with a new mission focused on training and advising the Afghan forces.

Second, even in this fiscally austere time, NATO leaders agreed to… more »