Elizabeth Lapporte’s Post

https://lnkd.in/dDa44fFY The NATO Accession of Finland and Sweden: A Strategic Advantage for the Alliance and the U.S. Wilson Beaver and Elizabeth Lapporte Jul 8, 2024 Since joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Finland and Sweden have demonstrated significant capacity and will as NATO members by investing in their militaries and by providing substantial amounts of aid to Ukraine. Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership enhances the Alliance, especially through certain critical assets, such as Finland’s substantial reserve forces and Sweden’s robust defense industry. Both countries have boosted their defense budgets beyond NATO’s 2 percent GDP guideline, actively support Ukraine, and engage in NATO military exercises. Both stand as model NATO members, and the Alliance would be markedly improved if every member state were to emulate them. The two new NATO members, Sweden and Finland, are key players in enhancing NATO’s defense fabric and confronting security threats, especially those posed by Russia. Both countries are investing in their own already substantial military capabilities and are providing significant amounts of aid to Ukraine. These two memberships should be a relief to the U.S., as it must focus its resources on the Indo–Pacific to counter China’s growing threats and capabilities.

NATO summit in Washington will mark 75 years BY JORDI BOU July 9, 2024 - July 11, 2024 - At a Washington summit marking NATO’s 75th anniversary, leaders of the 32-member alliance will discuss ways to adjust their long-term plans and strategies to counteract a more aggressive Russia. Founded in 1949 as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) remains, seventy-five years later, the pillar of U.S.-Europe military cooperation. An expanding bloc of NATO allies has focused on deterring Russian aggression in recent years, but it has also taken on a broad range of missions since the close of the Cold War, many well beyond the Euro-Atlantic region, in countries such as Afghanistan and Libya. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has shaken Europe’s security architecture and prompted a major reevaluation of NATO members’ foreign policies and defence commitments. The threat from Russia has pushed some longtime NATO partners, namely Finland and Sweden, to seek full membership. Finland acceded to the alliance in 2023, and Sweden in 2024. At the 75th anniversary summit in Washington, NATO is expected to offer Ukraine a new headquarters to manage its military assistance, an assurance of the alliance’s long-term commitment to the country’s security that has been heralded as a “bridge” to Kyiv’s eventual membership, the New York Times reports.

New NATO agreement shaped by Russian aggression and fears of hybrid threats Government officials see Individual Tailored Partnership Programme as continuation of previous NATO arrangements but more streamlined and efficient By Conor Gallagher / The Irish Times Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is approaching its second grim anniversary, has focused the minds of both Nato members and traditionally neutral countries. On the NATO side, members are worried that should a shooting war break out with Russia, the large and unwieldy alliance would not be able to defend Europe in a coherent manner, fears that have been exacerbated by the presence of pro-Moscow leaders in Hungary and Slovakia. For neutrals like Ireland, the chief concern is so-called hybrid threats; offensive action which falls below military aggression and is often hard to detect, much less attribute. Recent events have shown neutrality offers little defence to such threats. There have been examples of this all over the EU, from Russian warships posturing off the west coast of Ireland to Russian espionage operations in Helsinki. These concerns were top of the agenda during the 2022 Nato summit in Madrid. Then taoiseach Micheál Martin attended a dinner on the margins of the event, generating a few days of controversy back home. Much of the focus of the summit was on devising a new programme which would reinvigorate the Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme, an initiative devised after the end of the cold war partly as a kind of halfway house for former Soviet countries seeking NATO membership. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eytvYgZn #DefenceForces #Veterans #Charity #Opportunities #IrishArmy #IrishNavy #IrishAirCorps #NavalService #Navy #AirCorps #Army #Leadership #Defence #Military #Management #Security #Overseas #ukraine #ukrainewar #NATO

·     In addition to European defence, a major theme of 2024 NATO Summit was NATO and the Indo-Pacific.  It values the Indo-Pacific’s impact on Euro-Atlantic security and welcomes Asia-Pacific partners’ contributions.  ·     Russia remains the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security. ·     While celebrating 75 years of unity between Europe and North America, the members have demonstrated their unity in support of Ukraine and expressed their resolve to check China’s assertiveness in Asia-Pacific. ·     The United States, Netherlands and Denmark announced that the first NATO-provided F-16 fighter jets would be in the hands of Ukrainian military pilots by this summer.   ·     Currently, Americans prioritize Asia-Pacific concerns over Euro-Atlantic military challenges due to growing cooperation among China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

A New Nordic NATO? In the future, the new Nordic unity caused by Finland and Sweden’s accessions will draw NATO’s political and military-strategic attention more toward the greater Nordic space, ranging from the Arctic over Scandinavia to the Baltic Sea area. Commentary by Henrik Breitenbauch and Benjamin Jensen — July 10, 2024 The preconditions for an ideational Nordic Sonderweg are now gone. The Nordics are no longer hypothetically above the fray or outside the tensions. The border between Russia and NATO runs along the Nordic countries. Outside of the NATO framework, they have all recently signed extensive bilateral defense cooperation agreements with the United States. They now also share their fate more directly with that of their Baltic brethren. In addition to having to defend themselves, Finland and Sweden are getting ready to accept the idea that a hypothetical war of Western survival can be fought on their territories and adjacent waters, that their armed forces in case of war will relinquish operational control to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), and that these can also be employed to defend other parts of the allied territory. Relations with Russia will be less ambiguous, and Russia will thankfully have far less to gain by playing divisive subversion politics. How the Nordics respond to that deeper change will also matter for their ability to fulfill their roles in NATO in the coming years and decades.

The real threat to Europe is economic decline, geopolitical marginalisation and perpetual war. 5 consequences of a life without NATO — So the answer is clear. Life without NATO would be more dangerous and less prosperous. Russia and China would be the big winners at America's ...With the end of NATO, Europe and North America would also lose an important framework for legitimizing the collective use of military power.

Japan's tacit NATO membership Last year, Japan expanded its partnership with NATO by signing an Individually Tailored Partnership Program. This document highlights that Japan is a natural partner for NATO, and that both NATO and Japan agree to expand cooperation on security issues across all domains of warfare. Beyond the limits of NATO, the organization, Japan has also been busy negotiating and signing new reciprocal access agreements (RAA) on defense training and capacity building with NATO's member states. Japan signed an RAA with the U.K. in early 2023. It is currently negotiating an RAA with France. And while it is not an RAA, Japan and Italy have a 2027 Action Plan which includes various economic and defense-related matters, as Italy is also a core partner in Japan's development of their next generation fighter jet.

Guam’s Strategic Importance in the Indo-Pacific https://lnkd.in/g5bHUdmr The island’s proximity to Asia makes it a critical outpost for the U.S. military and a potential hub in the event of regional conflict.

NATO@75: The military alliance grows in relevance, also in expectations. NATO is increasingly considering the European and Indo-Pacific theatres as interdependent, especially considering the China factor. Projecting unity and unanimity remains the priority for the alliance after 75 years @Chopsyturvey @Firstpost https://lnkd.in/gu3W3aAv

"The United States, the heavily muscled, organizing big brother for European security since 1945 may not be around for much longer. Europe needs to get ready, and fast." Fabian Rene Hoffman argues that European governments must urgently prepare for a potential US withdrawal from NATO security guarantees in Europe, which could occur under a new Trump administration or shift in US foreign policy priorities. As Russia poses an ongoing threat and the US role may diminish, European states should accelerate defense spending, military modernization, and independent warfighting capabilities to reestablish effective deterrence against Moscow. Failure to do so could severely undermine both Europe's security and its credibility in deterring further Russian aggression or coercion.