Northern Europe, NATO, and the War in Ukraine: A Conversation with Lithuanian Minister of Defense Laurynas Kasčiūnas

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders met in Madrid, Spain, to chart a new Strategic Concept for the alliance. The document identified Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.” One year later, in Vilnius, Lithuania, NATO leaders met again to adopt a new set of regional defense plans to guard against Russian aggression.

Now comes the implementation. This July, NATO leaders will meet in Washington to assess the alliance’s progress in meeting its deterrence and defense targets. How strong is the West’s defense industrial base, and how prepared is NATO to defend itself if necessary? How will Sweden’s full membership in the alliance affect Northern Europe? 

Moreover, the war in Ukraine continues, and Kyiv has made no secret of its aspiration to join the alliance. So these are difficult questions that allied leaders cannot put off into the future. 

Please join Hudson Institute’s Peter Rough as he sits down with Lithuania’s minister of defense, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, for a conversation on these topics and more. 

Kasčiūnas was appointed minister of defense just last month after serving as chair of the parliamentary Committee on National Security and Defence (NSGK). A past head of the Eastern Europe Studies Centre (EESC), Lithuania’s top think tank, Kasčiūnas wrote his doctoral dissertation on Ukraine’s relations with the European Union.