The New Strategy Center organized on Wednesday, November 13, a panel dedicated to the impact of the US elections during the “Romanian Military Thinking” conference, hosted by the Romanian Defense General Staff, entitled “The Impact of the US Elections on the Transatlantic Relationship and Defence on NATO’s Eastern Flank”. During the discussions, the speakers emphasized the crucial importance of the transatlantic relationship for regional security and highlighted Romania’s strategic role as a key partner of the US on NATO’s Eastern Flank.
A focal point of the discussions was the strategic direction of the new administration in the White House, which is expected to place increased emphasis on European countries taking on increased defense spending and developing additional deterrence capabilities amid heightened tensions over the war in Ukraine. Also discussed was the transactionalist policy that President Donald Trump is likely to adopt, geared towards a strict assessment of the costs and benefits of international relations and US involvement in various international organizations, including NATO. This approach could induce European partners to invest more in their own security and increase their autonomous defense capabilities. In this context, the speakers emphasized the need for a coherent European defence strategy capable of ensuring that Europe can respond independently to regional threats without being totally dependent on American support.
The panel was moderated by LTG (ret.) Vasile Toader, member of the NSC Scientific Council, and the speakers were: George Friedman, President of Geopolitical Futures (video message), Amb. Sorin Ducaru, Honorary President of the NSC Scientific Council, Antonia Colibășanu, NSC Associate Senior Expert & Senior Geopolitical Analyst at Geopolitical Futures, Greg Melcher, Chief Operations Officer, New Generation Warfare, USA, and Jacek Bartosiak, CEO, Strategy & Future; Poland.
Also, MG (ret.) Paul Hurmuz, Associate Senior Expert, was a speaker on the panel “The influence of technological and social factors on defense intelligence in the current security context”, with a presentation on cognitive warfare, a particularly important topic in the context of the extensive hybrid actions unleashed by Russia to undermine the cohesion of NATO and EU states and, by implication, also support for Ukraine.
