Hard security concerns are again front and center in Europe as Vladimir Putin pushes to revise the post-Cold War settlement, regather the Russian imperial dominion, and compete for influence on the Continent. Two decades of Russian military modernization, combined with the disarmament of a majority of European NATO members, has tilted the military equation along NATO’s periphery against the alliance. In the political arena Putin recently scored a major coup when the Biden administration decided to lift sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, cementing Russia’s position as the principal energy supplier to Germany. Today, NATO’s Eastern flank countries are increasingly feeling the pressure from Moscow’s hybrid operations, while Russia’s occupation of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine impacts the alliance’s operational planning. To complicate matters, Belarus’s de facto reincorporation into Russia has been all but completed, especially in the military domain.
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