On 9 September, ICDS Research Fellow Tomas Jermalavičius addressed, as a panelist, participants of NATO SOF Symposium 2015, hosted by NATO SOF Headquarters in Mons, Belgium. He spoke in the session dedicated to exploring challenges to NATO on its Eastern Flank, which was moderated by David Hobbs, Secretary General of NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Together with the co-panellists, Keir Giles of the Conflict Studies Research Centre (UK) and Andrew Monaghan of the Chatham House, Tomas highlighted various aspects of how Russia is and will continue challenging security of NATO on its the Alliance’s Eastern flank, and particularly in the Baltic states. The panel concluded that NATO needs to ensure a substantial and meaningful military presence in the Baltics in order to deter Russia’s conventional aggression, while – in cooperation with the EU – develop a set of measures aimed at reducing various vulnerabilities of NATO Eastern flank countries to Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics.