From its very founding, NATO’s geographical boundaries have resulted in the Alliance being Euro-centric. The realities of an inter-connected society require engaging with partners around the globe outside this narrow scope, as well as assessing challenges beyond the initial vision of the Washington Treaty. How will NATO face an increasingly non-unipolar world in order to tackle and mitigate crisis and conflict? 

For over a year, a full-scale war has raged in Europe. This session provides insights into the coupling of cyber and physical domains in wartime. We will look at one of the hottest places in cyberspace – the Ukraine energy grid and its resilience to cyberattacks. Network scanning and monitoring methods will also be applied for the real-time detection of kinetic warfighting.

Conflict and war are not simply the purview of governments. Technology companies, logistic companies, mining companies and activists, to mention just a few, can all play a direct or indirect role in crisis, conflict, and war. How do these actors shape the capacity of militaries and governments? Are militaries faced with competition in carrying out offensive cyber operations? How significant has the contribution from private business been for the war in Ukraine?  

Wireless communication is widespread and varies in terms of frequencies, protocols and other technical attributes. This session focuses on the security challenges of radio communications, including the role of 5G cellular networks in critical infrastructure protection, and reverse engineering commercial drone control protocols helpful both in the battlefield and for law enforcement.

Sanctions against Russia adopted since 2014 and, in particular, since February 2022, have been impressive in breadth and detail. Yet, there are areas that have escaped the mechanism or have gone under its radar. How can we make sanctions efficient in light of new technologies and dual-use goods gaining ever-greater prominence in the security environment? 

Explore with us the challenges and opportunities of the existing legal frameworks and their implications for the future of warfare. 

The return of war in Europe has called into question the overall approach to security and defence adopted to date by European states as well as the need to improve their ability to defend themselves and their interests, including in cyberspace.  

The new EU Policy on Cyber Defence has committed financial resources and made several proposals showing the EU’s ambition to take a more active stance on its defence. These include an EU Cyber Defence Coordination Centre, greater cooperation of military cyber defence structures as well as the importance of interoperability and trust between stakeholders. How can we ensure complementarity and avoid competition with the existing NATO framework? How can we reconcile the mandates of EU institutions and the competencies of the member states? 

The law of neutrality is widely considered a cornerstone of international law. Its object and purpose are the protection of the territorial sovereignty of neutral states as well as the prevention of the escalation of armed conflicts. Although the content of provisions characterizing the law of neutrality may raise some discussion, generally speaking, the application of the law of neutrality in the cyber domain has not been disputed. 

The panel will explore emerging practice from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war to assess how the law of neutrality is tested and challenged by cyber operations in support of Ukraine, information sharing by neutral states, foreign hacker activities or private sector contributions to Ukraine’s defence.