LEADERS from 28 countries are preparing for a landmark Nato summit on Thursday and Friday in Wales that will map the way ahead for the military alliance.

A quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen asserts the meeting takes place at another turning point in international relations and is "one of the most important" in Nato's 65-year history.

While the summit has a broad focus, top of the agenda is Russia. Following Moscow's annexation of Crimea, and the downing of Malaysian Airways Flight 17 over Ukraine, the military alliance's relationship with Russia is at its lowest point since the Cold War.

Twenty-five years on, there is alarm in some quarters about the West's capability to respond to what is perceived as a significantly enhanced Russian security threat.

Earlier this month, for instance, the UK House of Commons Defence Committee released a hard-hitting report that depicts recent events as a "wake-up call for Nato". The study points to "serious deficiencies" in the military alliance's preparedness and asserts "radical reform" is needed. Among the measures that it calls for are: a continuous detail of Nato troops in "vulnerable" Baltic states, including Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; "dramatic" improvements in rapid reaction forces; and adding unconventional threats (e.g. cyber attacks and irregular militia attacks) to Nato's Article 5 security commitments that require member states to come to the aid of any counterparts subject to attack.

This agenda overlaps with that under discussion at the summit, but is not identical. In Wales, a series of reforms will be discussed by the 28 countries, including an Alliance Readiness Action Plan to improve the alliance's collective defence.

Whereas Russia has increased defence spending by some 80% since 2008, the counterpart figure for Nato countries collectively is a decrease of around 20%. Thus, there will be a particular stress at the summit for members to end recent rounds of defence cuts, and for European countries to meet guidelines for spending 2% of GDP upon defence.

A key part of the new readiness action plan is bolstering the top 16 capabilities Nato will need to better meet security challenges. These include intelligence, surveillance, missile defence, and cyber security.

The future of the military alliance's operations in Afghanistan is also on the agenda. There remains uncertainty over this mission post-December with June's Afghan presidential election still unresolved owing to allegations of voting irregularities.

Reportedly, a new security deal with Kabul would see a remaining international force of around 14,000 troops in 2015, which could be reduced significantly in 2016. This continuing international presence will also help ensure extensive funding and training for the approximately 350,000 strong Afghan police and military forces, which may otherwise disintegrate.

A third key theme of the summit is agreement of a Nato Defence Capacity Building initiative for countries that request security advice and/or assistance. The broad scope of possible support proposed in this initiative ranges from civil emergency planning, security sector reform, defence planning, defence reform and military training.

The ambition here is to bolster Nato's global engagement, including potentially with large, emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India which are playing increasingly important security roles. One specific regional area of focus is anticipated to be Africa and the Middle East where multiple countries, with unreformed defence sectors, are struggling with a range of security challenges.

Taken overall, the summit represents a key opportunity for Nato to agree a reform package that provides enhanced strategic direction for the next five to ten years. Leaders will want to discuss the outlines of a longer-term response to Russian actions in Ukraine; try to finalise the post-2014 mission in Afghanistan; and agree a new global engagement strategy.