Author's articles
Events
17. Feb, 2020
ICDS at MSC2020: Strengthening Deterrence Is Far Less Costly than Dealing with the Consequences of Its Failure
NATO’s only goal in pursuing deterrence in the Baltic region is to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Allies,…
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News
05. Feb, 2020
ICDS in the Christian Science Monitor: What Estonia Knows About Thwarting Russians
Now, as 2020 U.S. voting begins, Christa Bryant from the Christian Science Monitor visited Estonia to learn what could the…
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Publications
21. Dec, 2019
A View from the Frontline: Estonian Experience
"The Baltic states are where NATO is at its weakest and Russia, its strongest," ICDS Director Sven Sakkov provides a…
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Events
11. Dec, 2019
Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Eduskunta Visited ICDS
Estonia and Finland, two good neighbours so close, but yet different due to past. We were delighted to welcome members…
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Events
04. Dec, 2019
NATO Engages 2019 in London: NATO Needs Frank Conversations
“NATO’s enduring core tasks are collective defence, crisis management and cooperative security. This is a set menu, not a’la carte,”…
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Events
13. Nov, 2019
A Considerable Increase in Defence Investment Is Required if European Strategic Autonomy Is to Become a Reality
Europe needs to define its priorities and interests, improve its governance structures, improve its capabilities, and consolidate its defence industry,…
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Publications
28. Oct, 2019
European Strategic Autonomy: Operationalising a Buzzword
European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) is currently the subject of some debate and controversy. While this issue has been on the…
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News
21. Aug, 2019
Sven Sakkov to ERR: Buying Greenland Would Have Been Appropriate in the 19th Century
Sven Sakkov, Director of ICDS, considered US President Donald Trump's decision to cancel a state visit due to Denmark's refusal…
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News
09. Aug, 2019
UPDATED: ICDS Statement on Summer School in Ukraine in August 2018 and Resilience League activities
Statement on ICDS and Resilence League activities concerning Ukraine after recent Bellingcat reporting.
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News
16. Jun, 2019
Sven Sakkov in NDC Policy Brief: Why the Baltics Matter. Defending NATO’s North-Eastern Border
„The likelihood of a NATO-Russia military conflict is low, yet it should not be ruled out as a possibility,“ Sven…
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News
14. Jun, 2019
Sven Sakkov to Wall Street Journal: Deterrence Works When You Have Capabilities to Back it up
“Deterrence works when you have capabilities to back it up,” commented Sven Sakkov, Director of the International Center for Defense…
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News
11. Jun, 2019
Sven Sakkov in Edasi Magazine: Lennart’s Conference
“The Lennart Meri Conference (LMC) is the best security conference in Europe in the north of BayerischeHof Hotel Munich. Okay,…
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Events
05. Jun, 2019
Presentations of KAPO and RIA Annual Reviews at ICDS
In May, we continued discussions with the Estonian security authorities on their annual reviews.
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News
23. May, 2019
Sakkov to Daily Beast: It’s Straight Out of the Trump Playbook
“It’s straight out of the Trump playbook,” commented Sven Sakkov, director of the International Centre for Defense and Security Tallinn…
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Commentary
15. May, 2019
Winter is Coming
Without Hegemon’s Support the Values-Based International Order Will Collapse.
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Commentary
01. Mar, 2019
Dark Clouds Over Estonia
Every book by Robert Kagan is worth celebrating.
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Commentary
21. Feb, 2019
A Tale of Two Speeches
Since the Munich Security Conference, the headlines have been full of doom and gloom and an open rift between the…
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Commentary
06. Feb, 2019
State of Relief Address
In the last days before the State of the Union Address (SOTU) by President Donald Trump a state of near-panic…
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News
05. Feb, 2019
Sakkov: Naming and Shaming Doesn’t Work on Russian Leaders
“Naming and shaming does not work on Russia’s leaders because they don’t feel shame,” Sven Sakkov, Director of the International…
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News
29. Jan, 2019
Sven Sakkov to Norwegian Folk Og Forsvar: Triggering Article 5 Depends on the Consequences of the Cyber-attack
Although the Allies are frequently under cyber-attacks, none of them have caused so serious damage for NATO to invoke Article…
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News
22. Jan, 2019
ICDS at Snow Meeting 2019
At the invitation of Lithuania’s foreign minister, Linas Linkevičius, ICDS director Sven Sakkov and head of studies Tomas Jermalavičius participated…
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Events
16. Jan, 2019
Attribution of Major Cyber-attacks Has Become Mainstream
To fight a cyber-attack or cyber terrorist you must have John McClane in the ‘Live Free or Die Hard’ movie…
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News
15. Nov, 2018
Director of ICDS Sven Sakkov Interviewed by Newsweek
Is Donald Trump right? U.S. Military should be permanently stationed in Eastern Europe to protect NATO from Russia, allies argue.
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News
17. Oct, 2018
Eastern Europeans do not give up fighting Nord Stream 2
"We are a flat country with no strategic depth," says Sven Sakkov, director of the government-led think tank International Centre…
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Events
24. Sep, 2018
10 years from the August war – what have we learned?
On September 18th ICDS hosted a seminar which looked back at the Russian aggression against Georgia 10 years ago.
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Publications
01. Jun, 2018
Air Defence of the Baltic States
NATO’s air defence capability has declined over the past decades, a period during which the Allies have usually been able…
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Events
06. Apr, 2018
NATO’s role in securing the cyber-space
ICDS was proud to host a seminar titled “NATO’s role in securing the cyber-space” featuring Assistant Secretary General of NATO…
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News
04. Apr, 2018
NATO-EU Roundtable 2018
On April 4 Sven Sakkov, Director of ICDS, moderated a panel “NATO-EU Cooperation in Countering Hybrid Threats — From Past…
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Events
15. Dec, 2017
Taking Stock of Estonian Foreign and Security Policy in 2017
On Friday, December 15th, ICDS hosted a public discussion with Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Sven Mikser, and Minister…
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News
04. Dec, 2017
The Sunday Show
From November 30 to December 1, experts from around the world gathered in Ukraine to discuss global security issues at…
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Events
10. Nov, 2017
A Year since the US Elections: Taking Stock of the US Foreign Policy
On November 10th, ICDS organised a panel discussion titled: “A year since the US Elections: Taking stock of the US…
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News
06. Oct, 2017
Modern Wars Are Not Only about Bombs and Machine Guns
TALLINN (Aftenposten): Estonia stopped a cyberattack against the country’s digital services in 2007. Now, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre…
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News
19. Sep, 2017
Defending a Digital Ecosystem: the Estonian Way
"Estonia is probably one of the most digitally dependent nations in the world. We really depend on the digital infrastructure,…
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News
18. Sep, 2017
Russia Kicks Off War Games as West Watches
Wall Street Journal interviewed Sven Sakkov for a story about Russia’s Zapad 2017 exercise and NATO’s precautionary measures.
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News
10. Sep, 2017
Baltic States Urge Nato Unity as Russia Gears up for War Games
Nato said it was “vigilant and alert” over Zapad, but would remain “calm, balanced and measured”.
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News
07. Sep, 2017
Critical Alert: EU Ministers Test Responses in Cyber War Game
TALLINN (Reuters) - European Union defense ministers will hold a cyber war game for the first time on Thursday to…
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Commentary
04. Nov, 2014
Rock ‘n’ Roll and Heavy Metal. The Wales Summit and Estonia
The NATO of 2015 is a new NATO. And it is more like us than before.
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Commentary
15. May, 2014
Is This the Kind of NATO We Wanted?
Collective defense must be the main topic at the September NATO summit in Wales.
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