NATO leaders are gathering at their annual summit meeting this week to discuss important issues facing the Alliance. The Madrid Summit will address the Alliance’s response to the war in Ukraine, defence spending, climate security, and NATO’s strategic direction for the next decade. Here, we share some materials and analysis from the Network on these core issues.
The danger inherent in the basic structure of the Russia-West crisis itself ought to be receiving more attention, argue Malcolm Rifkind and Ian Kearns. The ELN Board members write that the lack of asymmetry of interests with Russia will make it harder to navigate a safe outcome of the war.
The ELN’s Younger Generation Leaders Network on Euro-Atlantic Security (YGLN) has intensified its convening since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has held weekly meetings, every one of which has been attended by Ukrainians, Russians, other Europeans and Americans alike. Through these meetings, all parties involved have engaged in fruitful and frank dialogue and have retained their commitment to engagement even in the toughest of times. Below, we discuss some key takeaways from our first three months of meetings.
The cyber side of conflict has become a prominent topic in recent years, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made the discussion of this topic all the more relevant. In this commentary, Michael Klipstein and Tinatin Japaridze argue that NATO should consider and create policy for collective cyber defence, and potentially offense, under Article 5 of the NATO Charter.
ELN Impact Director Jane Kinninmont reflects on the perspectives of people in the Middle East on the war in Ukraine, as seen at the The Doha Forum. She argues that the question of exactly what security commitments the US is willing to make outside of NATO is deeply relevant to the Gulf states’ own existential concerns.
Dr Ian Anthony examines confidence and security building measures (CSBMs) in Central and Eastern Europe and notes steps made by countries such as Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine to create and enhance bilateral discussion formats. This policy brief analyses these measures and examines their applicability to the current conflict in Ukraine and the European security order that will follow the war.