Prime Minister David Cameron will join fellow Nato leaders at a summit in Chicago as they try to negotiate an endgame for Western forces in Afghanistan.
But just like discussions at the G8 summit in Camp David, financial constraints are likely to dominate the search for answers.
US President Barack Obama is hosting more than 60 heads of state in his home city but expectations for the summit have been steadily receding in recent weeks.
Tens of thousands of protesters are expected to join a march through the city as the summit gets under way. A massive police operation is in place and much of Chicago will be locked down.
Three people have been charged with terrorism-related offences after police said they were planning to attack police stations and Obama's re-election campaign HQ.
The decade-old conflict in Afghanistan will be top of agenda at summit itself.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani president Asif Zardari are among those who have been invited as leaders try to plot Nato's exit.
The leaders hope to craft a timetable for handing over combat operations to Afghan forces by the middle of next year with all Nato troops out by the end of 2014.
But who pays the bill for those Afghan forces remains contentious with the US unwilling to shoulder all of the estimated $4.1bn a year.
Leaders are hoping for commitments to cover the 10 years of the strategic long-term partnership Mr Obama signed with the Afghan president earlier this month.
But former presidential candidate John McCain has told Sky News he has doubts about the viability of that deal.
He said: "I hope they can implement it correctly and I'm more optimistic than I've been in the past.
"I just wish the president would stop emphasising withdrawal and emphasise the importance of the strategic partnership."
He said the Taliban view of the US pullout plan is that "you have the watches, we have the time".
The alliance is unlikely to offer any solutions to the crisis in Syria during the summit but is likely to discuss the impact of budget cuts on defence capability.
Ivo Daalder, the US ambassador to Nato, has said the mission in Libya "only accentuated" the growing gap in capabilities between the US and its European partners, who actually ran short of precision-guided munitions at one point.
Mr Daalder said the US provided 75% of all intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets and flew 75% of aerial refueling missions in the Libya operation.It also provided the bulk of the officers who co-ordinated the targeting.
The summit follows the meeting of G8 leaders in Camp David in Maryland which focused on containing the impact of the euro zone financial crisis.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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