by Harald Kujat, former Chief Military Committee NATO, Berlin On 4 April 2023, 74 years after the founding of the North Atlantic Alliance, Finland was admitted as its 31st member. The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, declared that “Finland is committed to the security of all NATO member states”, referring explicitly to one of the…
by Dr Hazem Rihawi, Senior Programs Manager, American Relief Coalition for Syria (ARCS) / Co-Chair of InterAction’s Syria Working Group, Washington DC On February 6th, 2023, at 4:17 am, a colossal earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter near Gaziantep, struck the Southern region of Türkiye and Northwest Syria. This seismic event…
by Natalia Pouzyreff, Member of Parliament (Yvelines/6th district), Member of the Defence Committee, Assemblée Nationale, Paris Since 24 February 2022, the war on Europe’s doorstep has led to a surge in military spending amongst European countries. Germany has conducted a total shift in its defence policy and has dedicated a special €100bn fund. Poland, for…
by Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, European Commission, Brussels You are at home when you hear the wildfire warning over the radio. You need to leave immediately. Your thoughts race immediately to your children, still at school… It was August 2022 when France requested help from the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (hereafter…
Was the Ukrainian war correspondent, Yurii Butusov, right when he said, in a recent interview in the Neue Züricher Zeitung, that the Third World War has already begun with the war in Ukraine? The Spanish author, Raúl Sánchez Cedillo, in his book This war will not end in Ukraine[1] refers back to the slide into…
(Ed/hb, Paris) This week, the European Union CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative holds its 9th International meeting of the National Focal Points in Brussels. Launched in 2010 to increase national and regional CBRN cooperation worldwide, this successful EU-funded initiative currently counts 64 partner countries. The 2023 Brussels event, organised by…