The group comprised graduate students who visited key institutions to gain direct insights into contemporary transatlantic security policy and institutional diplomacy. Several sessions at the KAS European Office, the European Parliament, and the NATO Headquarters provided the students with a rare opportunity to engage with senior leadership on the EU’s and NATO’s evolving strategic priorities. The master students also had the chance to meet and discuss pressing politico-military issues with the Experts from various institutions, such as the Director of the KAS European Office, the Coordinator of the EU-NATO Task Force at the European External Action Service, staff members from MEP Mr. Tobias Cremer, and engaged in an insightful discourse with international staff such as the Program Officer for Transatlantic Relations as the Public Diplomacy Division (PDD) at NATO HQ.
As an introductory session at the European Office Brussels of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the Director shared expertise on various policy areas in which KAS works, such as the promotion of democracy, the rule of law, and the social market economy. The other members of the KAS Office also provided insights on the active monitoring conducted by them on the developments in the European Union, including the alignment of foreign policy with the trans-Atlantic community, which was a subject raised by a fellow student in light of EU’s recent unraveling of the “White Paper” vis-à-vis its strategic autonomy effort to strengthen the European Defense readiness by 2030, as part of the ReArm Europe Project. Points of great significance to current geopolitical dynamics and asymmetric threats were highlighted, such as the EU’s answer to the calls within the Union for integrating and reinforcing the European Defense Agency (EDA), the European Defense Fund (EDF), and the European Peace Facility (EPF), while the advent of the “coalition of the willing” was also briefly touched upon. On this note, collective deterrence measures in Eastern Europe’s “near abroad” were also emphasized, particularly pertaining to the German-Lithuanian agreement on permanent deployment of a Bundeswehr combat brigade as a constituent unit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s eastern flank in the Baltic. The students discussed the German Defence Minister’s (Boris Pistorius) message at the activation ceremony in May of 2025, reaffirming Germany’s commitment through the deployment of circa. 5,000 personnel on the 1st of April, the same year, reaching a milestone in the overarching aim of full operational capability by the end of 2027. Thus, the discussion underscored Germany’s increased degree of responsibility, and underlined the Bundeswehr’s commitment to the Brigade within the frame of this flagship project, as a result of a paradigm shift in the former policy of “Ostpolitik” at the dawn of the “Zeitenwende”. Following this, as one of the key areas of the KAS Office, the topic of European integration was up of discussion, during which students exchanged opinions on the prospects of the EU’s internal decision-making amendments, with some experts voicing concerns of future European consolidation, on topic such as EU Sanctions Regime or EU enlargement to Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans as strategic partners, but also illuminating challenges to the notion of adopting a qualified majority voting (QMV). Finally, during this session, the Director of the KAS Office and the present members shared insights on the EU-China development against the background of the EU-China Summit in July 2025 and the EU-China Strategic Dialogue. Notions such as de-risking and de-coupling from China were elaborated on, while the experts also covered the EU’s engagement with China on vital issues for the EU, such as free and fair trade, human rights, sustainable development, and climate change. Areas such as trade imbalances and dual-use of BRI investment in Europe were also raised as key concerns. Nevertheless, the experts agreed that due to American isolationism as a result of “America First” policies, the EU can leverage its norm-setting position to jointly strengthen multilateralism and uphold world order through engaging in dialogue with China, albeit a strategic competitor.
Furthermore, the students had the privilege to discuss the prudent state of NATO-EU joint cooperation during the session themed “The Future of a NATO-EU Cooperation”, with the Coordinator of the EU-NATO Task Force at the EEAS. The expert elaborated on expanded means through which NATO and EU tackle key security issues, such as political, economic, technological, and military, evident in numerous joint declarations, along with strategic documents ranging from the NATO Strategic Concept to the EU’s Strategic Compass. Moreover, multilateral intelligence and inter-agency cooperation were among the topics for which the students expressed interest, while the bilateral political issue in the context of Cyprus was cited by the expert, who referred to the conflict as a “hamper” to EU-NATO intelligence sharing efforts through mechanisms such as the ACO and ACT at the NATO HQ, overseen by the SHAPE and the operational command of Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and streamlined by the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence. The expert emphasized the cornerstone of NATO-EU cooperation through PESCO and the frequent targeted exchanges via enhanced joint meetings of the EU Political and Security Committee and the North Atlantic Council. Furthermore, the expert highlighted that NATO and the EU’s Military Staff are driven by complementarity in interoperability, yet they most certainly avoid duplication of work. In addition, the expert pinpointed the shared security threats and challenges in regions of strategic interest to the Alliance, including the Middle East, North Africa, and the Sahel regions, as well as the Indo-Pacific, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security. Against this background, the students demonstrated strong subject knowledge on NATO’s gradual shift in strategic priorities as the ones outlined above, and added that the EU has been faced with an unpredictable transatlantic scenario. Furthermore, the expert noted that the backbone of NATO-EU exchange of classified information with ensured reciprocal protection rules has been the NATO-EU security agreement, arranged by the “Berlin Plus” mechanism, allowing the EU to access NATO’s planning capabilities while assisting the EU in crisis management operations through facilitation, hence strengthening the European Security and Defense Policy. Expertise was shared in regard to subsequent CSDP missions of the EU, which have benefited from the mutually-beneficial agreement, as interests and security prerogatives of both NATO and the EU converge. Despite this, the expert expressed doubtful remarks about the notion of an EU-deployed peacekeeping mission to Ukraine, similar to EU ALTEA, due to political constraints and the question of operability of the EU’s Rapid Deployment Capability.
Moreover, the students engaged in constructive dialogue with one of the staff members of MEP, Mr. Tobias Cremer, who presented the aims of the cabinet and the means through which the team meets the goals and objectives of the MEP, at the European Parliament. Among them is safeguarding and transforming the European Union, with a solid foreign and security policy in the face of the “Zeitenwende” in the geopolitical order. The staff member provided a run-down on the daily tasks of the team, such as tracking schedule changes, drafting memos, delivering messages, and correspondence with other EU Parliament departments, and DG meetings, the delegations for relations with the United States and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and committees, where MEP Mr. Tobias Cremer serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Security and Defence. The staff member also elaborated on the MEP’s engagement with the local constituencies in the country of origin, in particular on topics of public interest, such as Germany’s defence spending vis-à-vis NATO’s threshold. The students had the pleasure of delving into the MEP’s agenda, specifically covering aspects of the EU’s embrace of its geopolitical actorness in a multipolar world, and maturing into a “sui generis” body that is more invested in comprehensive security measures and even more involved in burden-sharing with transatlantic allies, resembling policy overlap with the former discourse at the KAS office. Topics such as the European Energy and Defense Union were also covered by the staff member, underlining the MEP’s commitment to a reinforced European Defense Union.
Therefore, in the rhetorical framework of NATO-EU complementarity, the students had the pleasure and privilege of meeting with Ms. Hélène Pilloud, Program Officer for Transatlantic Relations at NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, where they immersed themselves in a very insightful discussion on NATO’s priorities. The Program Officer provided a comprehensive historical base of transatlantic ties to outline the fundamental watershed moments, from the early conception of NATO in 1949 and the Marshall Plan, that anchored both the U.S. and Canada to be committed to a free and prosperous Europe from the time of the “Iron Curtain”, to the the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Furthermore, the Program Officer provided an excellent overview of NATO’s expansion post-1991, and highlighted key strategic approaches to former adversarial powers such as the NATO-Russia dialogue, spanning from 1997 to 2022, just prior to the Russian occupation of Ukrainian territories. The speaker then transitioned into the evolution of threats from traditional and conventional to hybrid threats and asymmetric warfare tactics, and drew the students’ attention to the imminent demand for NATO members to become resilient and ramp-up defence spending, a call resonating with requests to increase investments back in 2014’s, during a time of 2.0 defence spending from GDP per NATO member country, which the then-incumbent U.S. President interpreted as “the floor, not the ceiling”. In this context, the students engaged in discussion pertaining to the recent NATO Summit of 2025 at the Hague, where the U.S. under the current leadership of President Trump and NATO chief Rutte, have urged the European pillar in NATO to ramp up investments in defense, evident in the displayed defense spending pledge of the allies to allocate 5.0% of GDP. The students addressed this development, arguing that it is aimed at both bolstering European defense and burden-sharing, while also boosting NATO-EU complementarity, an opinion also expressed at the MEP’s office. Additionally, the Program Officer highlighted the watershed moment of 2022 and framed it as a “wake-up call”. The face of a shifting defense paradigm was a topic up for discussion with the students, dissecting the joint declarations and documents such as the NATO Strategic Concept of 2022 and the EU Strategic Compass, both of which stress the significance of effective multilateralism and upholding the strategic partnership. Interestingly, the speaker stressed the divergence from the past 2010 Strategic Concept, as the 2022 Strategic Concept recognizes that the transatlantic area is undergoing severe threats to its security, thus declaring it “not in peaceful times”.
In addition, the students raised concerns regarding NATO’s gradual shift in geopolitical priorities, which may leave Europe questioning the future of NATO-EU intelligence sharing, therefore rendering it “stranded”. Moreover, other questions were raised by the students, particularly in the light of a more assertive China, tying back to the discussions at the KAS Office. The Program Officer addressed NATO’s concerns, emphasizing that China, with its commercial prowess through trade disruption and agile approach in forming interdependencies, is a “challenge” and is defined slightly differently from the EU’s depiction of China as a “strategic competitor”. The speaker also expressed concerns over dual-use technology and China’s “no limit partnership” with the Russian Federation, with the aim of fueling asymmetric wars through delivering dual-use technology in fragile zones of conflict. Therefore, the Program Officer elaborated on the defense spending processes, capability targets, NATO’s response force, and the interoperability between NATO and the European Union, marking the contemporary strategic partnership as a “feature of complementarity”. The speaker thereafter applauded the allies’ conviction to scale up investment in resilient infrastructure, showcasing a significant increase in NATO members’ capabilities between 2021-2025 by 30%, and referring to the tailored 1.5% to infrastructure investments of the recently-adopted 5.0% NATO threshold to meet targets for a “societal resilience” – scheduled to be reassessed by 2029. This illuminated to the students the urgent shift of NATO priorities, which left the students critically analyzing the future implications of hybrid warfare on NATO territories, and the prospects of an amended Article 5 of the North Atlantic Charter, which may include hybrid offensives in the foreseeable future. They also stressed the urgent calls for NATO allies to optimize capabilities and respond to the situational awareness of critical regions such as the Arctic, the Baltic, and the Indo-Pacific, while highlighting the leverage that NATO and the EU have through private partnership, utilizing means such as SIGINT, OSINT, GEOINT, and ELINT.
Consequently, as addressed briefly by the Program Officer, the emergence of hybrid threats in the Euro-Atlantic security architecture has also redefined and shifted the priorities and the methods of engagement of NATO’s response to these elusive threats. Officer Dragmar De Mora of NATO’s Cyber Team, Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber Division, provided the students with up-to-date insights on NATO’s responsiveness to these threats, particularly within the context of the Hague Summit, where NATO leaders approved a new hybrid-threats strategy succeeding the one from 2015. The Officer covered a wide range of threats, shaped by intentional and malign, and both overt and covert in nature. Moreover, the speaker elaborated on the rapidly changing threat landscape (covering the scale, scope, and intensity), with dual-use technology posing a constraint to NATO due to actors who instrumentalize them in warfare, effectively leading to their weaponization. Economic leverages and strategic dependencies were also discussed, leaving students intrigued by NATO’s approach to unconventional threats, also highlighting industrial espionage and its multi-dimensional threat by malign actors. The speaker addressed the fact that responses to these threats are also “national prerogatives”, and that states must be ready to “Prepare, Deter, and Prevent” – optimizing situational awareness of the security landscape. The students grasped the concept of identifying hybrid threats, monitoring, tracing trends in security threats (threat perceptions), and addressing isolated attacks. The Officer also illuminated the responsible use of OSINT as a powerful tool for observing patterns critical to national security, emboldening the strategic approach that must entail resilience-building, as a first line of defense.
Finally, the students of the MSIS Program of the University of Bonn concluded the visit with a reflective discussion, sharing key takeaways from the program. During the final discussion, valuable remarks about the insightful discussions at times of geopolitical dynamics were raised, including the complementarity of NATO and the EU. Students framed that such shifts in geopolitics and the unpredictable security landscape, coupled with hybrid threats, have immediate implications on the European Union’s common foreign, security, and defence policy, as well as its transatlantic allies and strategic partners.