This report was adopted by the Political Committee at the Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Lisbon.   Relations between Russia and West are currently at a new post-Soviet low and the prospects of a new reset of relations are bleak at best. NATO’s prudent dual track approach to…

Space technologies and space-based data and services are crucially important for the global economic and financial systems, communication, scientific progress, earth observation and natural disaster management, to name but a few. Moreover, space has emerged as a critical security frontier.…

Following highly problematic August 2020 Belarusian Presidential elections, which many observers subsequently characterised as neither free nor fair, widespread protests swept through Belarus. That the elections came to be seen as illegitimate was hardly surprising.  Alexander Lukashenko has long…

COVID-19 first appeared in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region in January 2020 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since then the number of reported cases in the region has increased substantially. With the exception of Iran, infection rates in the region have not approached those of…

The Black Sea region is at once alive with economic potential and imperilled by division, rivalry and conflict ¬¬¬– all with implications for the international system as a whole. It is an area united by an important waterway that links the littoral countries and hinterlands to the global economy.…

The global community is currently undergoing the most consequential pandemic since the outbreak of Spanish influenza in 1918-19. Pandemics, however, are not as rare as many have thought. Indeed, there have been four major pandemics over the last 120 years when flu viruses genetically mutated, and…

The rapid rise of the People’s Republic of China in the last part of the 20th century and early decades of the 21st century represents a paradigm shift in global affairs comparable in magnitude to the collapse of the Soviet Union.  The confrontation between China and the Euro-Atlantic community is…

“A global pandemic is not a question of if, but when and how bad”. Variations of this statement have over the years been repeated by countless health experts, yet when in late 2019 a novel coronavirus  emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan, much of the world found itself woefully ill prepared.…

This special report provides a brief overview of the challenges that the Alliance is facing on the defence innovation front and how member nations and NATO as an organisation have begun to tackle the issue. Your rapporteur also outlines some of the challenges Allies are facing in implementing…

The Alliance reacted swiftly and effectively to do its part to mitigate the impact of the spreading coronavirus early in 2020. It continues to contribute to the fight that will lead to its ultimate defeat. To date, NATO has coordinated well over 350 missions to transport medical personnel and…

The Gulf, like other parts of the Middle East, is both a source of friction and cooperation between Europe and the United States. This reflects both convergent and divergent interests in the region, but it is also emblematic of more enduring changes underway in the international system as a whole,…

The COVID-19 crisis has a significant short- and long-term impact on many aspects of the civilian dimension of security. This special report firstly examines the link between repressive policies and the aggravation of the health crisis. It shows that human rights restrictions in China have had a…

Informing and educating the public about NATO, its structures, operations, objectives and the threats it protects the Euro-Atlantic populations from are essential to ensure understanding of and support for the organisation. Given the Alliance’s democratic nature and the central role played by…

As 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the unanimous adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), this draft general report takes stock of the progress achieved in advancing the implementation of the resolution in the Euro-Atlantic area and beyond…

One of the highlights of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s March 2018 State of the Nation address was the presentation of two new nuclear delivery systems, which, he claimed, could evade US anti-ballistic missile defences. About 1 ½ years later, on 27 December 2019, Russia announced that Avangard…

[...] Today, NATO’s DCB initiative is an integral part of the core of NATO’s cooperative security outreach with partners. The programme allows NATO Allies to focus on working very closely with select partners to make their defence institutions, forces and capabilities stronger and more resilient.…