Read more about the article Renegotiating Alliances: Trump’s America’s first foreign policy and the European Union’s quest for strategic autonomy
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Renegotiating Alliances: Trump’s America’s first foreign policy and the European Union’s quest for strategic autonomy

In light of Donald Trump’s second administration and its transactional America-first foreign policy, this paper considers the implications for European strategic autonomy amid the heightened importance of US security commitments and defence capabilities. Trump’s foreign policy is driven by the belief that Europeans have taken advantage of the US within the NATO alliance and international trade, and seeks to renegotiate trade agreements, returning manufacturing to the US and shifting its strategic orientation towards Asia. In the short term, this can constrain Europe’s strategic autonomy, as European capitals are pressured to accommodate the America-first agenda to ensure the US retains vital military capabilities in Europe and continues to provide military support to Ukraine. However, in the long term, the Trump administration’s pressure on allies to spend more on defence and a degree of ambiguity over security commitments reinforces the need for European strategic autonomy and accelerates the development of capacities that enable Europe to pursue its interests more independently.

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11 June 2025
Read more about the article Operation Spiderweb: under Russia’s nose
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Operation Spiderweb: under Russia’s nose

On 1 June 2025, Ukraine launched Operation Spiderweb, the most effective drone attack against Russian airfields since the start of the war. A total of 117 drones were used to strike airbases across five regions – Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions –, with the aim of inflicting maximum damage on Russian aircraft far away from the frontier (Al Jazeera, 2025; Horowitz, 2025). Reports suggest that 41 aircrafts – including A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22 M3 and Tu-160 – have been hit in the operation along with a third of Russian bombers that are currently used as cruise-missile carriers (Horowitz, 2025; Security Service of Ukraine, 2025; Zoria, 2025).

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10 June 2025
Read more about the article The Acceleration of Command and Control Through Artificial Intelligence and its Implications for European Land Forces
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The Acceleration of Command and Control Through Artificial Intelligence and its Implications for European Land Forces

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an ever more important part of command and control (C2) and the decision-making connected to it. AI systems are crucial in supporting commanders in their decision-making, allowing them to act on data and the information it carries faster and more efficiently than ever before. These systems are complex, their results are often difficult to understand or verify, and they struggle with ethical considerations. To offset these disadvantages, humans need not concur with every decision AI makes, but they should retain control and be able to intervene and stop certain decisions as they see fit. Given the faster speed that AI gives C2 activities, continuing to exercise this control will prove challenging for commanders and their staff.

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5 June 2025
Read more about the article NORDEFCO – A Blueprint for Regional Defence Cooperation?
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NORDEFCO – A Blueprint for Regional Defence Cooperation?

This paper examines the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) as a case study in pragmatic, regional defence collaboration. Despite being founded by states with divergent political alignments and defence doctrines, NORDEFCO has evolved into a flexible and low-threshold framework that promotes operational efficiency, logistical coordination, and strategic interoperability among its members. By tracing NORDEFCO’s institutional structure and historical development, the study assesses the model’s successes and limitations. While NORDEFCO’s achievements, such as multinational exercises, intelligence sharing, and education programmes, demonstrate the value of voluntary, sovereignty-conscious cooperation, its replicability is constrained by the unique geopolitical and cultural cohesion of the Nordic region. The paper further aims to provide an outlook into NORDEFCO’s possible avenues of expansion and prospective transformation following the NATO membership accession of all its members. The study concludes that NORDEFCO-NATO coalescence is crucial to overcome the agreement’s limitations to achieve real Nordic defence integration, arguing that NORDEFCO is likely to retain its relevance under NATO command thanks to its region-specific capability enhancement projects.

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3 June 2025
Read more about the article Defence Spending as Economic Policy? Military Keynesianism in Today’s European Context
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Defence Spending as Economic Policy? Military Keynesianism in Today’s European Context

This paper explores how recent European defence spending reflects a strategic application of military Keynesianism rather than a purely threat-driven response. While the term remains largely absent from official rhetoric, EU institutions and Member States have embraced its logic to confront a dual challenge: growing geopolitical insecurity and economic stagnation. By linking defence investment to industrial revival, regional cohesion, and political consensus-building, the EU uses military expenditure as a policy tool to stimulate growth and support rearmament. The paper identifies a secondary form of military Keynesianism, in which defence policy is deliberately bundled with broader economic objectives, showing a shift in the EU’s approach to both security and fiscal policy.

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19 May 2025