Present in a quagmire? NATO’s Baltic presence and “Hybrid Threats”

Author(s): Martin Zapfe
Editor(s): Andris Sprūds, Diāna Potjomkina
Book Title: Riga Conference Papers 2016
Pages: 62-72
Publisher(s): Latvian Institute of International Affairs
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Place: Riga

At its summit in Warsaw in July 2016, NATO effectively opted to augment the “deterrence from afar” agreed upon at its Wales Summit in 2014 with the presence of multinational ground forces in theatre. The so-called “Enhanced Forward Presence” (EFP) is the right decision and, although a compromise, still based on the lowest common denominator – a critical element in any future NATO deterrence of Russia. In the years ahead, NATO will work on integrating this presence into credible and workable military plans for various conventional contingencies.1 However, this paper will focus on the narrower topic of NATO’s EFP in the context of specific sub-conventional (“hybrid”” or “non-linear”) challenges.

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