At the beginning of July, NATO member states met for the biannual summit, which this time was taking place in Warsaw. The host nation, Poland, made elaborate attempts to use the summit to assert its own interests. Hence “Anaconda 2016“, a military exercise, was run this year between the 7th and the 17th June 2016, with over 31,000 soldiers from 24 NATO states and partner states taking part. This military exercise was therefore the largest of its kind after the Cold War if we discount Russia’s military exercises, which are on an even larger scale. Additionally, the annual military exercise “BALTOPS” also took place between the 3rd June and the 19th June 2016, which involved 6,100 soldiers from 15 NATO states and 2 partner states including Poland.

Poland, along with other Eastern European nations, is looking to convince the other NATO member states that it requires NATO troops to be permanently stationed in Eastern Europe, as well as C2 installations, in light of the threat from Russia. Such permanent stationing would – at least from a Russian perspective – be in breach of the NATO-Russia Founding Act. This means that, after the NATO summit, we are faced with the question, if the Eastern European countries were able to assert their interests during the summit in Warsaw, and what measures NATO is taking to secure its eastern flank. Moreover, the interests of the Eastern European countries seem to compete with the interests of the southern European countries, who, for their part, are in need of a stronger southern flank. This raises also the question of which interests the Southern European countries were able to assert at the summit, and whether a combining strategy exists.