European Security and Defence

In a world where the global legal order is thin and often fragile, we continue to rely heavily on older legal foundations of territorial sovereignty. In Europe, the very cradle of the Westphalian state model, challenges to that order are all the more shocking. Russia’s decision to annex Crimea—regardless of its perceived geostrategic justification—poses a stark and undeniable challenge to the post-Cold War order. While Russia cannot pose the kind of strategic threat offered at great domestic cost by the USSR, it is a significant regional actor. European states, bilaterally and multilaterally (through the EU, NATO, the OSCE and the Council of Europe), also have a vested interest in restoring normal relations with Russia. However, Russia’s actions towards and within Ukraine are unparalleled in modern times and have forced a fundamental re-evaluation across European foreign and defence ministries of contemporary assumptions about the nature of modern security and European territorial defence