The world has developed to a point where we need to worry about our security in both the virtual and the physical space. So it is worth exploring both directions, which is what the June issue of Diplomaatia does.
Kadri Kaska, a researcher at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, writes about 5G technology and the problems concerning Huawei. “The issue over the security features of Huawei devices hasn’t been confirmed as yet—no one has seen the smoking gun, and no significant vulnerabilities that the company or China could have knowingly exploited have been identified. Still, knowing this doesn’t provide much reassurance,” says Kaska.
Piret Kuusik, a junior research fellow at the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, analyses the results of the elections to the European Parliament at the end of May. “We should pay attention to what the anti-European forces really want from Europe,” writes Kaska. “Brexit has been like a vaccine against talk of leaving the EU, but how could one find a new way of expressing antipathy towards the Union?”. Viljar Veebel and Holger Mölder comment on the subject.
Finnish freelance journalist Jarmo Mäkelä observed the elections in Estonia’s Nordic neighbour.
Analyst Sergei Sukhankin explores the options for Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Freelance journalist Hille Hanso interviews Syrian-Lebanese economist Rouba Mhaissen about the dismal situation in Syria. “No one is a winner. There is a saying about ‘winning the war but not winning the peace’ because any form of agreement that comes today without any justice and rights does not solve the root causes of the problem—the injustice that existed in the first place, the lack of institutional capacity, the lack of human opportunities, the young as a human resource—all of the problems combined with a very unjust economic system and the lack of freedoms,” says Mhaissen.
Alla Hurska and Jukka Mallinnen look at the resurgence of Stalinism and the Stalin personality cult in Russia.
Analyst Nurlan Aliyev writes about the militarisation of Russian territories in the Arctic. “Russia’s Arctic territories are of particular importance as the most open in terms of direct control of the state border and the front line of the country’s defence system,” writes Aliyev. “Russia’s most recent maritime and military doctrines treat the Arctic as one of the priority geographical areas for the country’s economic development and security.”
Finnish freelance journalist Tuula Koponen explores the problems of the Western Balkans—a region torn between the EU, Russia and China.
This article was published in ICDS Diplomaatia magazine.