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Focus Point: Regional Security- European Security
Borrell: Turkish and Russian influence has derailed EU’s ‘Mediterranean order’| EUobserver
Benjamin Fox | 26.08.2024| Subscription needed
Growing Russian and Turkish influence in North Africa has derailed the EU’s ‘Mediterranean order’ in the region, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.
“We should be worried about what’s happening in Africa. When I first came to Brussels, the French and Italians were in Libya. They weren’t always in harmony, but they were present. Today, there are no Europeans left in Libya – only Turks and Russians,” Borrell said.
Speaking at the Quo Vadis Europa conference in Santander on Sunday (25 August), Borrell added that “the bases along Libya’s coast are no longer European; they belong to Turkey and Russia. This is not the Mediterranean order we envisioned”. Read more…
Focus Point: Security and Defense Policy- Great Power Competition
Top US, China officials to meet on military, Taiwan, fentanyl | Reuters
Trevor Hunnicutt|27.08.2024
U.S. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is embarking on several days of talks with top Chinese officials in Beijing this week, aimed at quieting tensions between the two superpowers ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election.
Sullivan, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi and others meet for the talks from Tuesday to Thursday as the two countries are at odds over the Middle East and Ukraine, Chinese territorial claims from Taiwan to the South China Sea, and trade.
Sullivan wants to expand military-to-military talks down to the theater command level, a step that Washington hopes could prevent conflict in specific areas like the Taiwan strait.
The U.S. also wants China to take more action at home to prevent the development of chemicals that can be made into fentanyl, the leading cause of U.S. drug overdoses, and reach an understanding about safety standards for artificial intelligence.
Both sides are also warily watching the prospect that the Gaza war could spiral into a broader regional conflict. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Transatlantic Security/ NATO
Why air superiority is key for NATO | NATO-ACT
NATO-ACT | 27.08.2024
Russia’s war in Ukraine reaffirms that air superiority remains job number one to allow conducting successful air operations. Consequently, NATO and its air forces need to be prepared to achieve air superiority early on in any potential conflict.
“Deterrence by denial first is an essential task that depends upon having the right forces—equipped, trained, and proficient—that can win,” General Hecker went on to say.
“In other words, when asking what force posture provides a credible deterrent, the answer is to be able to readily demonstrate that NATO possesses the forces it would take to forcibly deny the adversary their objectives. Authoritarian regimes are not likely to be constrained by public disapproval of military adventurism, so we must appeal to their rational interest that conflict with NATO is not worth the cost and risk to their national forces or regime,” he explained.
Read the full article to find out more: https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/Portals/10/AEtherJournal/Journals/Volume-3_Number-2/Hecker.pdf
Focus Point: Regional Security- Transatlantic Security
Patriot games: How America is outgunning Europe on air defense | Politico
Joshua Posaner| 27.08.2024
When it comes to marketing an air defense system, the best advert is seeing it in action.
Russia’s latest bombardment of Ukraine on Monday with at least 127 missiles and 109 drones focused attention back on the ground-based air defense platforms donated to Kyiv by its Western allies — and especially the U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot.
The fuss around the Patriots, a workhorse of Western air defense since the 1980s, is leaving the equally able Franco-Italian SAMP/T system in the dust even though, on specs at least, it provides a formidable, Europe-made alternative. Read more…
Focus Point: Security and Defense Policy- Russia-Ukraine War
Allies reaffirm pledge to strengthen Ukraine’s defences at NATO-Ukraine Council meeting | NATO
NATO|28.08.2024
Since the start of Russia’s full-fledged invasion, Allies have made unprecedented contributions to Ukraine’s defences. At the NATO Summit in July, numerous Allies announced they will send Ukraine additional strategic air defence systems, including more Patriot batteries, and Allies agreed that together they would provide a minimum of 40 billion euros of security assistance in the next year. Allies also agreed to coordinate security assistance and training for Ukraine, with a new NATO command taking on these tasks that will become operational in September. Read more…
Focus Point: Security and Defense Policy- Defense Discussions
Is Everything a Matter of National Security? | War on the Rock
Christopher Preble, Zack Cooper, and Melanie Marlowe|29.08.2024
Chris, Melanie, and Zack debate whether national security has been defined too loosely. If too many things fall under the category of national security, do we risk missing the really important ones? How should policymakers decide what is a national security threat–and what isn’t? What are the first-order national security threats facing the United States? And how can government decision-makers impose some discipline on how they think about and manage true national security threats? Grievances for China’s (other) bad behavior in the South China Sea and to the Military Sealift Command for taking 17 support ships out of service due to inadequate staffing. Attapeople for the Biden administration in helping to keep the U.S.-Chinese relationship from going completely off the rails; to the U.S. intelligence community and the U.S. media for their deft handling of Iranian attempted election interference; and to Ely Ratner and others in the Biden administration for negotiating a new compact with India. Read more…
Focus Point: Regional Security- Africa
NATO steps up its cooperation with the UN Regional Service Centre in Uganda | NATO
NATO| 30.08.2024
NATO and the United Nations continue to strengthen their long-standing cooperation. On 27 August 2024, representatives from both organisations met at the UN Regional Service Centre in Entebbe to mark the successful completion of two joint capacity-building initiatives related to information and communications technology.
Since September 2022, the NATO Communications and Information Academy has supported the expansion of the UN Academy for Peace Operations course curriculum on Command, Control, Communications, and Computers (C4), as well as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. The NCIA Academy also contributed to upgrades to UN classroom equipment including the delivery of a Virtual Instructor-Led Training facility. Read more…
Focus Point: Emerging Technologies & Data- Artificial Intelligence
Glossary of artificial intelligence terms | Brookings
Brookings| 30.08.2024
Since 2019, the Brookings Institution and the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University (Tsinghua CISS) have convened teams of national security technology experts from the United States and China for an unofficial Track-II dialogue on artificial intelligence (AI) in national security. The two teams identified a need to build parallel glossaries of AI terms—one developed by U.S. experts and the other developed by Chinese experts—to enable a precise understanding of each other’s intended meanings when discussing AI and national security. Read more…
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The NAVI Research Institute is the research division of NATO Veterans Initiative - NAVI that provides a unique perspective to transatlantic leaders and societies on peace and security through the lens of NATO's founding principles of rule of law, democracy, human rights, and individual liberties. The NAVI Research Institute was officially established by the NAVI Board on July 16th, 2023.
