Europe

Like the electorate in the Balkans, the West often opts for a “devil you know” and “lesser evil” strategy when choosing who to support as leader. This is understandable in the short-term, but in the long-term it may be extremely damaging.

In a pre-elections speech reminiscent of those delivered by Soviet leaders in the Cold War era, Vladimir Putin covered all grounds to distract attention internally and create a military fantasy externally.

The name dispute has been the biggest obstacle to European integration for the Western Balkan country, and has resulted in Greece vetoing Skopje’s NATO accession in 2008 and blocking its European Union accession talks before they even began.

HSC Senior Fellow Dr Rowan Allport has had a comments piece on the need for NATO to revitalise its Maritime Strategy featured in UK Defence Journal.

Russia’s reliance on military means to achieve its foreign policy goals threatens the safety and security of the US, its allies and its partners. One measure Washington must pursue is cooperating with Warsaw to develop a short-range cruise missile.

The House of Commons Defence Committee has published its report on the future of the UK's Royal Marines and amphibious forces.

Despite its tight budget, the U.K. continues to make a major contribution to Western security. But Brexit and financial miscalculation now present a potentially crippling threat to the British military.

The road towards justice in the Western Balkans is still long, but it is not an impossible one – and if reconciliation is to be achieved, the ICTY needs to start being seen as merely the beginning of this road.

The deployment of a missile deterrent in Europe based upon the Long Range Precision Fires programme would present Russia with the prospect of rapid retaliation to any aggression.

With the European Union’s attention almost entirely dedicated to the Brexit negotiations, 2017 has been a year of highs and lows for the Western Balkans. Some countries proved themselves capable of impressive progress, while others showed why external involvement is still very much needed in the region.