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NATO has been quietly holding closed-door meetings with film and television screenwriters, directors and producers across the United States and Europe, in an effort that organizers say has already generated "three separate projects" in development, the Guardian has revealed. The initiative has drawn sharp criticism from writers who say they were effectively being asked to produce propaganda for the military alliance.
The meetings, conducted under the Chatham House rule to shield the identities of attendees, have taken place in Los Angeles, Brussels and Paris. A fourth session, described by NATO as part of a "series of intimate conversations," is planned for London next month, where officials intend to meet with members of the Writers Guild of Great Britain.
The London meeting has provoked strong objections from some of those invited. Alan O'Gorman, whose film Christy won best film at the 2026 Irish Film and Television Awards, described the initiative as "outrageous" and "clearly propaganda."
"I thought it was tone deaf and crazy to present this as some sort of positive opportunity," O'Gorman said, adding that many writers have "friends and family or themselves come from countries that are not in NATO, that have suffered under wars that NATO has joined and propagated."
O'Gorman characterized the outreach as an attempt by the alliance to "get some of its messaging out there in film and TV," and said other invited writers were "pretty offended that art would be used in a way that was supporting war."
Faisal A. Qureshi, a screenwriter and producer with more than two decades of industry experience, said he had applied to attend the London session firsthand but was forced to withdraw due to a scheduling conflict. He raised pointed questions about the psychological dynamics of such briefings.
"The risk for any creative who dips into this unattributable world of intelligence or military briefings is that they can get seduced into thinking they now have some secret knowledge," Qureshi said, warning that information passed on in such settings carries "the veneer of truth given to it by an authority that rarely deals with the public."
He questioned whether any writer who attended would be sufficiently willing to "challenge or interrogate" what they were told.
A NATO official said the sessions followed "interest expressed by members of the industry" in learning more about the alliance. Former NATO spokesperson James Appathurai, now deputy assistant secretary general for hybrid, cyber and new technology, is expected to attend the London meeting alongside other alliance officials.
In an email to WGGB members seen by the Guardian, organizers suggested the earlier sessions had produced three projects in development and framed NATO's core purpose in terms writers might find compelling, saying the alliance was "built on the belief that cooperation and compromise, the nurturing of friendships and alliances, is the way forward."
The outreach fits a broader institutional trend. The Centre for European Reform, a think tank, released a report this year urging governments to engage cultural figures, including screenwriters and producers, to build public support for increased defense spending. In 2024, eight American screenwriters, including a writer and executive producer on Friends and a writer on Law and Order, visited NATO headquarters in Brussels at the invitation of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, meeting then-Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
O'Gorman's objections carry a particular charge given the Irish context. Ireland has maintained a policy of military neutrality for decades and is not a NATO member, though its defense spending has risen to record levels in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a move that has received cross-party political support. Public enthusiasm for joining NATO, however, remains limited. An Ipsos poll found that, in the event of a united Ireland, 49 percent of voters in the Republic opposed joining the alliance, compared to just 19 percent in favor.
"I think there's fearmongering throughout Europe at the moment that our defences are down," O'Gorman said. "I see it in an Irish context, where there's been a push through some of the media and government to present NATO in a positive light."
The Writers Guild of Great Britain, for its part, said it had passed the invitation to members as a matter of professional information rather than endorsement. "Our members are free thinkers," a spokesperson said, "a valuable and vital skill that they bring to their craft."
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