This book focuses on NATO’s role in East-Central Europe and how it is responding to the strategic regional challenges posed by Putin’s Russia. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shattered the post-Cold War illusion of a stable European security order. This volume examines the consequences for NATO's Eastern Flank — the arc of nations from the Baltic states and Poland through Romania and Bulgaria — which is now the most strategically contested border in the world. Drawing on contributions from diplomats, military strategists, and leading academics, the book tackles the full range of threats facing the Alliance: Russia's weaponisation of energy supplies, nuclear deterrence under renewed pressure, hybrid warfare and cyberattacks, and the growing strategic competition in the Arctic. Case studies spotlight landmark defence initiatives including Poland’s Eastern Shield and the Baltic Defence Line, as well as the historic accession of Finland and Sweden — which doubled NATO’s land border with Russia. The volume also examines the ambiguous but increasingly significant role of China in the region, and confronts the structural shifts in transatlantic relations driven by American reorientation toward the Indo-Pacific. The volume also considers larger conceptual issues, including what the strategic motivations driving NATO are—along with how these may need to be modified to address present-day challenges in East-Central Europe—and the manner in which cost-sharing is currently borne among Alliance members and what this may look like going forward. This book will be of much interest to students of NATO, strategic studies, Russian security, and International Relations in general.
