Tom O'Connor
While peace in Ukraine remains an elusive prospect, signs of progress from the White House's diplomatic initiatives already have officials discussing what a postwar security landscape may look like when the guns quiet in Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.
Far from ushering in a new era of stability and calm, however, the next chapter for the continent is likely to be dominated by a new kind of battle already taking place on several unconventional fronts, from unmarked drones and hard-to-trace cyberattacks piercing through NATO defensive lines to rising popularity of political parties sympathetic to Moscow, driven in part by discontent over mass migration, some of it emanating from the border with Belarus.
In each case, European leaders have identified a concerted campaign by Russia and its allies to pressure the trans-Atlantic bloc from within. Yet experts with ties to NATO and the European Union also argue that, in each theater of the emerging bout, NATO's collective defense, rooted in Article 5, has demonstrated major vulnerabilities that may only incentivize rather than deter enemy action.
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