Rear Admiral (Ret.) Liviu Coman, Senior Associate Expert at New Strategy Center, participated as a speaker at the Modern Warfare Conference on 30 September, in the panel “Evolution of the Eastern Flank Security Environment.”

Rear Admiral (Ret.) Liviu Coman argued that the Eastern Flank is an increasingly interconnected set of maritime theatres — the Barents Sea, Baltic Sea, Black Sea and Danube — where geography matters once again. The Black Sea is the central example: the war in Ukraine has shown that maritime power does not necessarily mean control of the sea, while maritime interdiction, carried out through naval drones, coastal missiles and mines, can be decisive.

The advantage now lies in the speed of decision-making, supported by maritime domain awareness, artificial intelligence and a common operational picture. He also highlighted the resilience of critical infrastructure, the strategic role of the Port of Constanța, and the blurring of the boundaries between peace, crisis and war.

Among the priorities he identified were enhanced maritime domain awareness, unmanned systems and counter-drone capabilities, the protection of critical infrastructure, the development of an integrated air, surface, subsurface and seabed picture, as well as a coherent NATO maritime strategy for the region.