The 7-8 July 2026 NATO Summit took place in a markedly different geopolitical environment from last year’s summit. Within the span of the last year, the US has held a wartime summit with the Russian President in Anchorage, threatened the territorial integrity of Denmark through claims on Greenland, and launched a war against Iran that saw NATO’s European members refuse the US airspace access to offensive Iran-bound tankers and bombers. In the same timeframe, an exhausted Ukraine reaped the benefits […]
Europe enters a dense sequence of summits over the next few weeks, including the G7, European Council, NATO summit and potentially an EU-UK summit, against a backdrop of mounting geopolitical and economic pressure. Managing relations with an increasingly embattled President Trump will be a recurring theme as tensions continue to simmer over Ukraine, Iran, trade, […]
The European Commission’s proposed AGILE instrument is designed to accelerate the deployment of disruptive defence technologies from European start-ups and SMEs. With €115 million allocated through to 2027 and compressed timelines (four to eight months from proposal to award), it is explicitly modelled on the pace of wartime innovation seen in Ukraine. But AGILE is not a step-change in EU defence […]
The recent rupture between Washington and Madrid has sharpened a question that has been quietly gaining urgency in Brussels: what comes next for European Union defence policy? After Spain refused to authorise the use of its bases for U.S. operations linked to escalating tensions with Iran, President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off trade with […]
Since the publication of the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) in June 2025, the UK Government has increasingly framed defence policy in urgent terms: warfighting readiness, industrial mobilisation, and national resilience. Ministers have been explicit that deterrence is no longer a distant planning assumption, but an immediate operational requirement. However, implementation is now running into constraints […]
On 3 January, US forces carried out airstrikes and a military operation in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, capturing President Nicolás Maduro who has been in power since 2013. Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has assumed presidential powers as interim President. This US action in Venezuela illustrates Trump’s increased focus on the US sphere of influence in the Western […]
The opening months of 2025 saw the Labour Government begin to shape a more assertive defence posture in response to both geopolitical tumult and the UK’s domestic challenges. Three major moments defined the emerging character and ambition of this new approach: a commitment to increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, structural reforms […]
A strategic shift Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s commitment to increasing the UK’s defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 (2.6% including National Security spending), with an ambition to achieve 3% in the next parliamentary term, marks a significant shift in UK national priorities. The decision, funded by a reduction in the overseas aid budget, […]
