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On 15 April in Vilnius, a prestigious U.S. think tank presented its report, which aims to better acquaint the U.S. and European politicians with the current security challenges facing the Baltic States and to help ensure a unified NATO strategy to address threats from the East.

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, drafted the report based on the 2015-2016 project “Assured Resolve: Testing Possible Challenges to Baltic Security”. Its purpose is to maintain the attention of the U.S. and the member states of the European Union on threats facing the Baltic countries, to analyse potential responses to Russia’s provocations at national and multilateral levels, to detect deficiencies which can affect the political decision-making process and to make suggestions for the future.

Advisers to the President, members of the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevičius were acquainted with the project report and recommendations by a co-founder of the CNAS, former U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy and National Security Adviser to the main candidate in the United States presidential election of 2016 Hillary Clinton Michèle Flournoy, the Director of the Strategy and Statecraft Program at the CNAS, former National Security Advisor to the Vice President of the United States who works on NATO and Central, Northern and Eastern European policy in Clinton’s team Julie Smith as well as the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program Director at the CNAS Jerry Hendrix.

Relevant presentations were also organised for representatives of the Government of the United States, also at the headquarters of NATO and the European Union.

A table-top exercise was held to discuss hybrid and conventional attack scenarios in the Baltic States. Nearly 50 representatives and experts in the field of security and defence policy from the Baltic and Nordic countries as well as the U.S. Government attended the exercise.

Among other findings the project underlines the importance of a permanent NATO military presence in the Baltic States, the Northern European countries’ essential role in the defense of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia,  the need to build resilience in societies of these and other European countries to attempts to undermine their vital functions.

From left to right: Julie Smith, Linkevičius, and Michèle Flournoy