Baltic Bulwark: Expanding strategic cooperation to protect European underwater infrastructure from sub-threshold threats

The Council on Geostrategy and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in London are pleased to invite you to our upcoming event: ‘Baltic Bulwark: Expanding strategic cooperation to protect European underwater infrastructure from sub-threshold threats’.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea has been targeted by an increased number of ‘incidents’, which have damaged subsea cables as well as fuel pipelines, causing significant economic disruption for European nations. This has brought the vulnerability of undersea infrastructure to the forefront of defence policy for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries surrounding the Baltic Sea and in Northern Europe. In response, NATO launched Operation BALTIC SENTRY in January 2025, deploying frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones to protect critical infrastructure and deter further attacks.

However, protecting critical infrastructure from sub-threshold actions by adversarial nations – such as Russia – remains a challenge, made more evident by the recent airspace violations in Central and Eastern Europe by Russian drones and aircraft. To enhance European security in this era of geopolitical confrontation, European nations, in particular Britain and Poland as leading military powers, should develop strategies which can deter sub-threshold and overt malicious activity by ‌Russia.

This high-level seminar will bring together leading experts and policymakers to discuss:

• Why subsea infrastructure is under threat from sub-threshold activity;
• How are European countries are taking action to enhance Baltic Sea security;
• How key European countries can take on more responsibility for shared security;
• What are the key strategic challenges and capability gaps in the current efforts to protect the Baltic Sea; and
• How transatlantic cooperation on shared strategic interests in the Baltic Sea can be better leveraged.

Join us at the Polish Embassy in London for an in-depth discussion on the enhancing security of critical subsea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

Elisabeth Braw

Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Security Initiative in the Scowcroft Centre for Strategy and Security, where she leads the ‘Threats to the global maritime order’ project. Her work focuses on defence against grey zone and hybrid threats, as well as the intersection of geopolitics and the globalised economy. She is also a columnist with Foreign Policy and Politico Europe. She is a member of the advisory boards of M&C Saatchi World Services and GALLOS Technologies, and is an adviser to Willis Towers Watson’s research arm, a member of the United Kingdom’s National Preparedness Commission, as well as a member of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy’s advisory council.

William Freer

Research Fellow (National Security), Council on Geostrategy

William Freer is a Research Fellow (National Security) at the Council on Geostrategy, where he co-leads the Strategic Defence Unit. He is also an Associate Fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre. Before joining the Council on Geostrategy, he worked as a consultant for 50 Degrees Ltd., which specialises in research and advisory work as well as government procurement, both within Britain and abroad. He graduated from the War Studies programme at King’s College London in 2020.

Benjamin Schmitt

Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania

Benjamin Schmitt is a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where he holds a joint appointment with the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Kleinman Centre for Energy Policy. He is also a Senior Fellow at Perry World House and a Senior Fellow for Democratic Resilience at the Centre for European Policy Analysis. Previously, he served as European Energy Security Advisor at the US Department of State. He has held affiliations with the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, the Harvard-Ukrainian Research Institute, and co-founded the Duke Space Diplomacy Lab.

Szymon Kardaś

Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations

Szymon Kardaś is a Senior Policy Fellow working on the European Power Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, where he specialises in the geopolitics of Europe’s new energy environment. Between 2012 and 2022, he held the position of senior policy fellow at the Russian Department of the Centre for Eastern Studies in Warsaw.

Viktorija Starych-Samuolienė (moderator)

Co-founder, Council on Geostrategy

Viktorija Starych-Samuolienė is Co-founder at the Council on Geostrategy, where she is responsible for the organisation’s strategy and growth. She is also a Fellow of the Durham Institute of Research, Development, and Invention (DIRDI). Her areas of research expertise and interests include Euro-Atlantic geopolitics, defence and maritime affairs.

For more information, please contact [email protected].