Moritz Brake, Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and naval reservist, uses the occasion of NATO’s “Baltops 2025” exercise to reflect on Europe’s maritime vulnerabilities in FAZ. With 50 ships from 17 NATO countries deployed in the Baltic Sea, the maneuver focuses on protecting critical infrastructure such as sea cables and pipelines. Brake argues that Europe’s economic resilience depends on secure maritime routes, which are increasingly targeted by hybrid threats, cyberattacks, and undersea sabotage. Exercises like “Baltops 2025” demonstrate NATO’s strategic adaptation to these challenges, including mine-clearing operations, anti-submarine warfare, and the use of unmanned maritime systems. According to Brake, the Baltic has become a front line in Europe’s defense posture—both militarily and economically. He concludes that Europe must reassume its maritime responsibilities if it wants to protect its future.
Dr. Moritz Brake at FAZ: Europe’s Future is Being Secured at Sea Dr. Moritz Brake at FAZ: Europe’s Future is Being Secured at Sea
In an article for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Moritz Brake, Senior Fellow at CASSIS, outlines how NATO’s “Baltops 2025” naval exercise underscores the growing importance of maritime security for Europe’s future.
Dr. Moritz Brake is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) and a reserve officer in the German Navy. He received his PhD from the War Studies Department of King's College London in July 2022 with a thesis on the German Navy as an instrument of foreign policy. He is a member of the German Maritime Institute (DMI) and an auditor of the French Institut des Hautes Études de Défense National (IHEDN). In addition to a Master's degree in War Studies from King's College London, Brake holds a nautical patent and an engineering degree in nautical science from Jade University in Elsfleth, Germany. In active naval service, he most recently served as a youth officer in public relations as a security policy advisor on behalf of the German government, and served in the UN mission UNIFIL (Eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon, 2007) and the EU anti-piracy mission ATALANTA in the Horn of Africa (2010 & 2011), in addition to seagoing service on merchant and warships.