As the geopolitical tension rises and Finland and Sweden join NATO the Centre for Geopolitics is pleased to host a discussion about the security balance in the Baltic Sea region. The discussion will be based on the report Close to the Wind: Recommendations for Baltic Sea Regional Security written by Edward Lucas, Ben Hodges and Carsten Schmiedl for the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA). This report highlights a number of challenges for security in the region, which the discussion will centre upon:
- Differing threat assessments chiefly at a political level
- Gaps in intelligence collection, sharing and fusion
- Lack of trust among some regional countries
- Divergent economic interests
- Difference and shortcomings in air and maritime strategies
- Limitations on military mobility
- Inadequate Air and Missile defence
- Multiple non-synchronised command structures
- Lack of realistic ‘hard exercises’
- Fragmented security co-operation
- Overreliance on the United States as the lynchpin of regional security.
These will be discussed by:
Edward Lucas, co-author of the report and writer, journalist and analyst of geopolitics and the Baltic states
Sir Stuart Peach, former Chief of the Defence Staff and Chairman of the Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Chair: Rt Hon Charles Clarke, former Home Secretary and Co-founder of the Baltic Geopolitics Programme at Cambridge
