Tanya Ogilvie-White argues that South Korea is becoming increasingly isolated from its regional security partners in the way that it views the threat from North Korea. She argues that South Korea’s regional security partners’ increased focus on China and lessened attention on North Korea’s nuclear programme, risks isolating South Korea and undermining proliferation norms, and heightened collaborations are needed to avoid this.
Former ambassadors to NATO, Ahmet Üzümcü and Fatih Ceylan, look ahead at what a potential peace deal in Ukraine could look like. They write that neither mutual accusations nor wishful thinking can be taken as a guide to chart the future of broader European security. Instead, the focus should be on exploring peace by putting together potential elements of an enduring and sustainable deal that would ultimately serve the interests of global security.
Ilana Bet-El, Senior Associate Fellow at the ELN, speaks with Zeynep Atikkan, a renowned Turkish journalist, on the ramifications of the opposition CHP party’s victory against President Erdogan’s AKP in Turkey’s recent local elections. Together, they dissect the state of Turkish politics, covering the economy, the Kurdish issue, the role of women in Turkish society, evolving political dynamics, and more.
In our latest New European Voices on Existential Risk (NEVER) commentary, Nicolò Miotto explores the potential existential risks stemming from the terrorist use of large language models (LLMs) and AI to manufacture chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons. In the commentary he explores how LLMs and AI have enabled terrorist groups to enhance their capabilities so far, and what governments, the private sector, and NGOs need to do to mitigate future risks.
Meir Javedanfar writes that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Gaza war mean that a nuclear Iran may no longer be viewed as a threat by the Russian leadership. Javedanfar argues that a nuclear Iran could boost Russia’s leverage in the Middle East and divert attention from its war in Europe.
In an excerpt from her new book “The New Cold War”, ELN Senior Policy Fellow Julia Berghofer writes that despite the challenges, the West needs to maintain certain channels of communication beyond the political and military level. Contact with a younger generation of Russian security experts, civil society activists, and political scientists is essential for a safer Europe.
Listen to the third episode of the NEVER podcast – Ok, Doomer! In this episode, we explore climate change; the existential risk that the general public is most familiar with. Featuring an exploration of how the climate crisis affects politics on the local, national and international levels, climate change as a “polycrisis”, and how the world in the past has managed to unite around policies that combat climate change such as closing the hole in the ozone layer.
Ilana Bet-El, Senior Associate Fellow at the ELN, speaks with Dr. Radha Kumar, renowned Indian policy analyst, public intellectual, and writer specialising in ethnic conflicts and peace processes, in an exploration of India’s democratic crossroads. From inter-ethnic tensions to political power plays and media freedom, the flowing conversation explains much about the sub-continent and the state of democracies far beyond.
As countries continue incorporating AI into conventional military systems, they should prepare themselves for the risk that adversaries are likely already working to exploit weaknesses in AI models by threatening datasets at the core of AI. To address this, Alice Saltini writes that states should develop metrics to assess how cyber vulnerabilities could impact AI integration.