STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Editor's note: Marcin Zaborowski is director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs and a member of the group of experts appointed by the NATO Secretary General to consider the alliance's strategy in the run-up to the Newport summit. Follow him on Twitter @MaZaborowski. The views expressed in this commentary are solely the author's.

(CNN) -- The recent NATO summit in Newport, Wales was initially meant to prepare the alliance for the post-Afghanistan era and pooling of resources at the time of defense cuts, known in NATO lingua as "smart defense."

However, as often happens, the summit agenda was hijacked by more current and dramatic developments: the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Russia's push into Ukraine. Both these developments have reminded NATO that its core business -- the defense of its member states -- needs to be returned to the center of the alliance's agenda.

Marcin Zaborowski

Russia's annexation of Crimea and continued push into the south-east of Ukraine -- a NATO partner country -- has inevitably provoked fear amongst Ukraine's neighbors, all of whom have relatively fresh memories of Russian domination.

These countries -- Poland and the Baltic states in particular -- made sure that the Ukrainian crisis would be at the center of the Newport agenda.

This happened in two ways. The Central East European allies asked for measures that would reassure them by confirming NATO's engagement in the face of Russian aggression. In addition, the show of solidarity with Ukraine became a major focus of the summit, which was attended by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

The outcome of the Newport summit has met these allies' expectations, at best, halfway.

NATO's failure to send a clear signal to Russia by supporting Ukraine represents in itself a grave threat to the alliance's Central East European members -- who may be next on the list of potential Russian targets. Marcin Zaborowski

Read more here:

Despite NATO Ukraine is still alone