During this panel discussion, our speakers address the evolving global security environment. Tensions between the United States and China have been on the rise in recent years. Relations between Europe and the wider Western world on the one hand and Russia on the other have deteriorated steadily. Fears of a full-scale war in Eastern Europe are now real. In the light of these developments, some small neutral countries in Western Europe are reassessing their security arrangements. Though still protected by geography, these rising tensions are affecting Ireland, not least as Russia has only recently relocated its planned naval exercise outside of Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.  

About the Speakers: 

Vice Admiral Mark Mellett (ret.) is a former Chief of Staff of the Irish Defence Forces. He has also held the position of Flag Officer, Officer Commanding Naval Operations, Commandant of the Naval College and Associate Head of the National Maritime College of Ireland. 

Dr Ulrike Franke is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). She leads ECFR’s technology and European Power initiatives. Her areas of focus include European security and defense, the future of warfare, and the impacts of new technologies on geopolitics and warfare.  

Dr Thomas Wright  is the Director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a Senior Fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. He is also a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His most recent book, Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order, was published in August 2021 by St Martin's Press.