Defense of Europe

OVERVIEW

NATO and European officials are increasingly discussing the necessity of accelerating European rearmament efforts to meet the urgent need to prepare to defeat potential Russian conventional aggression against a European state in the next 1-5 years. European states and NATO military planners cannot assume that their current capabilities are sufficient to defeat the changing Russian military and respond to the changing character of war. European states are expanding their defense industrial bases, revising their force posture, working to use their available resources more efficiently, and leveraging learning from Ukraine to inform capabilities development. A successful effort to meet the Russian conventional threat will require not only a NATO plan, but prompt action by individual states and coalitions of the willing — including deepening cooperation and mutual exchanges of learning and development with Ukraine — to deter or defeat the Russian military.

The Institute for the Study of War is launching the Defense of Europe Project (DEP), a forward-looking initiative designed to support NATO and its partners as they prepare for a renewed Russian threat against Europe. DEP will help European states efficiently and effectively use their resources to respond to evolving Russian capabilities. This project will provide European states timely, iterative, and open-source assessments on evolving Russian capabilities; the changing character of war; and policy recommendations to enable Europe to deter or defeat a near-term Russian conventional attack on a European state.