News & Comment

Oana Lungescu, a former NATO spokesperson, said the move “risks sending a further signal that the U.S. isn’t listening as closely as it should to the concerns of its allies, especially after Marco Rubio skipped the last meeting.” “Having said that, there is also an upside,” said Lungescu, who now works as a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, “in that Elbridge Colby … is best placed to explain [the new U.S. defense strategy’s] intent and implications, and to hear the views of allies.”

Since 28 December we have seen unprecedented protests in terms of the impact across Iran and in the numbers of protesters killed by the regime... as the US carrier group arrives in the area... this is a crucial moment and is likely to affect fundamentally what Iran looks like in a few months time and in years to come."

The environment will kill you far quicker than any enemy would, so it is a real challenge, and when you talk about logistics and actually keeping forces supplied, be it by ship or helicopter, again it just makes it far more challenging. I think the benefit from a NATO perspective is that quite a lot of NATO members are not just Arctic trained, that's all they know...The military balance in the Arctic now is looking far better for NATO now that it did in 2021."