The article, dedicated to the 70th the anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization describes the role of the American think-tank community in providing ideas for the NATO expansion. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Cold War era block was trying to find a way to adapt itself toward the completely new situation. The goal to change NATO mission, according to the new realities was also shared by the President Bill Clinton Democratic administration. His assistant for National Security Affairs Mr. Anthony Lake was the first senior official to speak about the NATO new role in his famous speech "From Containment to Enlargement» in September 21, 1993. «…we will seek to update NATO so that there continues behind the enlargement of market democracies an essential collective security». Following this trend, a number of leading American think tanks such as Brookings, Rand and Council for Foreign Relations started to develop policy ideas on how to expand NATO. Both of them were seen as anchor states to counterbalance the Russian influence in the near abroad. The trend has continued during the Presidency of George W. Bush, whose administra-tion was also nursing the idea of NATO expansion toward the former Soviet States. The articles talks about various policy ideas, developed by think tanks, regarding this issue, their practical advises to the governments of Georgia and Ukraine. The article also describes the debates among the leading foreign policy makers, regarding NATO expansion, who often proved conflicting opinions on the matter. The debate has allowed the administration to listen to the different voices, regarding the issues. After Republicans were replaced by the Barak Obama Democrats, a different approach toward NATO expansion has been taken. It was largely influenced by the «reset policy», created by the foreign policy scholar-turned presidential advisor Michael McFaul. He saw the process of resetting relations with Russia as the way to change Russia’s own relationship toward countries like Ukraine and Georgia. Some of those ideas have also changed the attitude of various experts and think tanks toward the NATO issue. The article concludes that NATO facing its 70th anniversary will have to look for new policy ideas, picking up the brains of the leading experts and scholars.