Tag: EuropeanSecurity
Intelligence Rearmament Spreads as States Prepare for Conflict
Sweden is creating an independent civilian foreign intelligence service. Japan is establishing a central intelligence bureau and proposing its first standalone postwar foreign-intelligence agency. Germany is debating powers that could take its foreign intelligence agency beyond gathering information and into sabotage, cyber disruption and, only in a constitutionally declared state…
Putin Orders Third Armed Forces Ceiling Hike of 2026
Russia has again expanded the authorized size of its armed forces, reinforcing a military structure built for prolonged war rather than postwar demobilization.The decree, signed by President Vladimir Putin on July 27, raises the ceiling to 2,426,130 personnel, including 1,535,000 servicemembers — the third such increase in 2026, according to…
Ukraine Is Teaching NATO a Faster Way to Fight
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine depended heavily on Western weapons to survive. Four years later, the relationship is becoming more reciprocal. While Kyiv still relies on allied military aid, NATO and European governments are increasingly turning to Ukraine for something they cannot manufacture themselves: combat-tested knowledge…
Finland Goes Underground as Russia Rearms
On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. Its bombers hit Helsinki that same day. What then became known as the Winter War lasted barely three months. Finland did not surrender, but paid heavily for survival: it ceded roughly a tenth of its territory and spent the Cold War…
Ukraine Is Forcing Europe to Rethink Air Defence
More for Ukraine, more for themselvesWestern leaders gathering in Paris on Monday are trying to secure more air-defence systems for Ukraine. The shortage they face, however, is not simply one of missiles or launchers. It reflects a defence-industrial model built for decades of peacetime efficiency rather than sustained high-intensity war.…
Estonia Approves Permanent Military Base on Russian Border
Estonia will begin large-scale construction of a new military base in the border city of Narva at the end of 2026, with around 200 Estonian Defence Forces personnel to be permanently stationed there once the facility is completed, according to Ando Voogma, project portfolio head at the Estonian Centre for…
