The presumptions underpinning European NATO members defence and security planning over the past thirty years ended abruptly on 24 February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, it has become all too obvious that NATO members, including the United Kingdom, cannot sustain a "normal" relationship with Russia under President Putin. Instead, progressing into a state of de facto Cold War alongside territorial violations, ‘grey zone’ pressure and apparent sabotage.

NATO members - most prominently the United Kingdom and Germany - have committed to major programmes of defence re-investment, but is this too little, too late? What options does NATO have to contain the growingly hard to deter Putin regime?

The event includes a panel of our newest visiting lecturers to reflect on these issues, whilst offering a chance for staff and students to engage with new members of the teaching community and discuss what may lie ahead for NATO and European security.

Chair

Simon Anglim is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, where he convenes the MA Contemporary War and Warfare and MA Evolution of Insurgency. He is the author of "Orde Wingate: Unconventional Warrior" and has given evidence to the House of Commons Defence Committee on the preparedness of the British Army.

Panellists

Lt Colonel François‑Joseph Fury is a Political Advisor at NATO Allied Maritime Command and an Adjunct Professor in Geopolitics at Sciences-Po Lille. He was previously Political Advisor at Rapid Reaction Corps HQ France and prior to that POLAD to the Franco-British CJEF and French Joint Headquarters, advising on the political, social, economic and religious dimensions of the theatres in which they operate. In 2022 he was deployed with the NATO Rapid Reaction Force to NATO’s Eastern Flank and has deployed several times previously to the Middle East.

Aliona Hlivco is a political scientist and foreign policy expert, and Founder and CEO of St. James’s Foreign Policy Group. She previously held senior roles in Ukraine’s government and parliament and was elected to the Chernivtsi Regional Parliament. Since moving to London in 2018, she has worked across academia, policy, and risk consultancy, and is a regular media commentator on European security, geopolitics, and contemporary conflict.

Dom Morris is a senior adviser to the UK government on grand strategy, campaign design and the evaluation of operations. He has advised and deployed to the frontline on operations in Ukraine, the Indo-Pac, Syria, Nigeria and Mali. Dom runs Strategy Farm, a leading network of strategists and planners advising politicians, commanders and diplomats at his family farm in the Cotswolds.