Our Ukraine expert Beate Apelt and security expert Sebastian Vagt report on the Ukraine conflict, analyzing possible future scenarios
Europe is at war. This is often overlooked in view of the Corona pandemic and a recently renewed refugee crisis on the Greek-Turkish border. However, in eastern Ukraine, soldiers are still dying every week in an armed conflict that should have been resolved five years ago. A group of liberal defence experts has gathered a picture in Kyiv.
The current drafts for the next EU budget radically cut back funding for the European Defence Fund and military mobility. This threatens both the European Union’s ability to act globally as well as its credibility.
Some years the Munich Security Conference is more than a series of speeches and background discussions. Sometimes it becomes a stage for sensations, real diplomatic breakthroughs or relentlessly honest position statements.
The targeted killing of the Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is highly questionable under international law and strategically counterproductive. Negative consequences for the security of Europe and the cohesion within NATO are imminent.
From a European perspective, the American attack on the Iranian top military officer Qasem Soleimani and the accelerated escalation of the conflict between the USA and Iran that accompanied it, came completely unexpected.
In the past, civil society has often benefited from innovations in the military sector. The microwave, the ambulance and the Global Positioning System (GPS) are just a few examples of the components of our everyday lives that have emerged from military research. This logic could be reversed in the future. The rapid advances in civil research in artificial intelligence will radically change the future of warfare.
Before the unofficial summit in London, the Alliance argues over the French President’s statement that NATO is “brain dead”. Behind an inappropriate choice of words, however, is an accurate and valuable analysis.