Security and Defense Program

GMF’s security and defense policy (SDP) work comprises a stream of activities that further objective analysis and debate on key security issues facing the transatlantic community. The team’s work spans regional and functional issues, from NATO affairs to U.S. Foreign Policy to European Security.

SDP’s work is driven by its network of experts, located in GMF’s offices in Berlin, Brussels, Paris, Warsaw, and Washington. Collectively, these experts produce research and analysis and convene strategic events. The team covers a broad array of topics, such as, security in Europe's East, the strategic environment in the Mediterranean, and the role of Turkey as a transatlantic partner.

Ongoing Projects:

Baltic Quad Series: This series seeks to better understand the pressing security issues facing the Baltics and its transatlantic partners. With the support of the Latvian Ministry of Defense, GMF regularly convenes select senior American, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian officials, alongside policy and academic experts, for a series of Track 1.5 off-the-record discussions.

Future of American Power Series: This series discusses new books focusing on U.S. power in the world.

NATO at Brussels Forum: A pillar of the transatlantic partnership, NATO is a perennial topic and essential component of GMF’s flagship convening effort, the Brussels Forum.

Transatlantic Security Task Force: This program, created in 2012 with the support of Airbus, brings together, three times a year, a group of high-level American and European security experts, strategic thinkers, government officials, and private sector representatives from the defense industry, to explore the security priorities for transatlantic cooperation and stimulate a much-needed dialogue on looming threats and possibilities of cooperation.

The Warsaw Security Series: This series brings together policymakers, key experts, industry voices, and journalists from Poland with voices from the U.S., NATO, the EU, and other European allies for in-depth discussions on European security. The series combines an intimate off-the-record discussion for up to 35 people, with a public event bringing together an audience of 80-120 people from the broader policy community.

Transatlantic Strategy Toward Russia: Since its inception in 2015, this project has welcomed many of the transatlantic policy community’s most prominent and respected members including senior government officials, thinkers, military representatives, and strategists from Poland, Europe, and the United States. This venture has become a primary platform for discussion of the political, economic, and social dynamics influencing the U.S.-Europe-Russia relationship.

European Defense Cooperation in a New Transatlantic Area: This program, created in 2017 with the support of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to foster European dialogue on defense issues and provide policy recommendations to strengthen defense and security cooperation among European powers. It includes an annual workshop bringing together high-level European and U.S. experts and officials, as well as publications and private briefings. It analyzes the implementation of EU defense initiatives, the evolution of threat perception and strategic priorities across Europe, and the articulation of deeper European defense cooperation with the transatlantic defense partnership.