Britain\u2019s top military officer has called for NATO to confront Russia across every front, warning that deterrence depends on showing strength in all areas of competition, from nuclear forces to economic pressure.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Washington, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin told the Centre for Strategic and International Studies that \u201cthe policy of NATO is to deter. And we deter by demonstrating to Russia that we are stronger, that we are ready to fight, and that we will beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He made clear that this was not limited to conventional military power, adding \u201cthat means contesting Russia in every domain \u2013 nuclear, land, sea, air, cyber and space \u2013 as well as in the diplomatic and economic arenas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radakin linked this approach directly to Ukraine\u2019s struggle, saying it was \u201cimperative to double down on our efforts to support Ukraine\u2019s ability to defend its courageous people against Russian aggression to preserve their hard-won freedom and independence through a just and lasting peace.\u201d The war, now well into its third year, has exposed the limits of Russian power, but the Admiral warned that Moscow\u2019s weakness makes it more dangerous, not less.<\/p>\n
He described Russia\u2019s current strategy as one of sub-threshold operations designed to harass the West without triggering direct conflict. \u201cThe very reason Russia is pursuing sub-threshold attacks against us is because Russia is unwilling and unable to do so through more overt means. Putin does not want a war with NATO. He cannot even win a war against Ukraine,\u201d Radakin said. However, he cautioned that \u201cRussia has more cause to be fearful of an Alliance of 32 than the other way around.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Admiral rejected the idea of a purely defensive posture in Europe, saying he was \u201cwary of too great an emphasis on homeland defence, or a fortress Europe\u201d. Instead, he argued for forward defence, projecting power outward rather than retreating behind NATO borders. This, he said, meant matching Russia not just in the skies and seas, but also in cyber warfare, space capabilities, diplomacy and economic influence.<\/p>\n
Radakin\u2019s remarks come at a time when NATO forces are expanding training missions and operational deployments in Eastern Europe, the High North and the Black Sea region. The alliance has also intensified its economic and diplomatic measures to constrain Moscow\u2019s ability to sustain its war effort.<\/p>\n
According to Radakin, the goal is not simply to respond to Russian actions but to create a strategic environment in which Russia recognises it cannot prevail. This, he argued, is the essence of deterrence and the reason NATO must be willing to operate in every domain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s top military officer has called for NATO to confront Russia across every front, warning that deterrence depends…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-349470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115039178805591693","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}