Over the past few weeks and months, in Bratislava at GLOBSEC and in Bucharest at the Aspen Forum, you have been engaged in raising the awareness of the allies about the emerging A2/AD challenge. How do you see the impact of the deployment of access denial capabilities – in Kaliningrad and Crimea – not only for the defence of allies, but also for NATO‘s ability to reassure and deter?

This is indeed becoming a more central subject of our debates. It is not a new concept. I first learned this magical acronym – A2/AD – when I was at the Pentagon. It was more a focus of US defence policy in the Asia-Pacific against a rising China. Another term that is often used is “bastion defence”. Indeed the Russians are building these very heavily militarised “bastions” in Kaliningrad, in Crimea and now we are watching carefully how far things go in the Eastern Mediterranean too.