‘The West in a New Era of Great Power Rivalry’

In 2021, the flagship Lithuanian security and defence event focused on the West in a new era of great power rivalry, featuring four panels and three high-level keynote speeches. Former US National Security Advisor Lt Gen (ret) McMaster kicked off the BMC by emphasizing that the West needed to regain its strategic competence in the wake of re-emerging great power competition. The second day began with a keynote opening delivered by the President of the Republic of Lithuania, H. E. Gitanas Nausėda. The President made it clear that the West should increase its efforts in deterring principal adversaries with military means. The Baltic Military Conference ended with the keynote address by the US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Department of Defence, Dr Colin H. Kahl. He stressed that the answer to strategic competition is allies and partners working together. Strategic competition is exacerbated by threats that know no borders. These include COVID-19, climate change, cyber threats, violent extremism and more. The ‘Night Owl’ session reflected on the large-scale strategic military exercise, ZAPAD-2021 (West-2021), held by Russia and Belarus.

‘China and Russia: traditional and emerging security challenges’ panel discussed that combining traditional and hybrid tools, Russia continues to threaten the West. Its aggressive military posture poses a challenge for Europe’s security. China’s military assertiveness in the South China Sea and its ambition to expand its global influence by gaining access to strategic economic sectors and Western technologies make the global security environment even more complex.

‘NATO’s deterrence and defence posture: the way ahead’ panel deliberated Russia continuing to destabilise the situation in and around Ukraine. Despite the ongoing pandemic, it retains an aggressive posture and antagonistic rhetoric with regards to the West. Russia undermines the rules-based international order by violating international treaties such as INF, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Open Skies Treaty. It has developed an aggressive military posture, practising it during strategic level exercises based upon aggressive scenarios directed against NATO.

Panel ‘Preparing for the future: the race for technological superiority’ discussed the future security of the Euro-Atlantic area depending heavily upon the success of Western democracies in the race for technological superiority. Emerging new technologies such as autonomous weapon systems, artificial intelligence, cyber, quantum computing, 5G networks or hypersonic weapons systems are considerably changing the strategic security and defence calculations while also posing challenges and providing opportunities at the same time.