Members of the ELN reflect on what European responses to President Trump’s remarks on Greenland tell us about NATO cohesion and Europe’s capacity to act on its own security.
As State Parties prepare for the 2026 Review Conference, Bailey Schiff and Diya Ashtakala write that engaging with emerging technologies, which are already transforming military programmes, as well as verification and civilian nuclear programmes, offers a way to break entrenched debates. Revisiting longstanding challenges regarding non-proliferation and the peaceful uses of nuclear technology through the framework of emerging technologies may be one of the few practical paths to relieve pressure on the NPT by opening space for innovation and debate across the three pillars.
On Saturday, 10 January, Finland’s withdrawal from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention or ‘Ottawa Treaty’, will come into effect. This follows the earlier withdrawals of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Gary Toombs writes that while landmines may seem appealing as cheap, simple tools of defence, in reality, they are militarily outdated, strategically counterproductive, and devastating in humanitarian, economic, and environmental terms. States on the path to leaving the treaty should reconsider, as withdrawal would not strengthen their security but would undermine international law, erode alliances, and cause generational harm.
At the start of the new year, members of the European Leadership Network’s senior and younger-generation leaders’ networks offer their perspectives on their defining issue or policy trend to watch in 2026.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has made drone warfare a defining feature of modern conflict. Yet NATO and EU states continue to rely on interceptor systems that cost orders of magnitude more than the drones they are meant to destroy. Drawing on lessons from Ukraine’s battlefield experience, Gabriella Calder argues that European allies must urgently scale up affordable, interoperable counter-drone technologies, or risk exhausting their arsenals before deterrence can take hold.
Conflict is rising, institutions are strained, and fragmented interventions yield fragile gains. Robert J. Berg and Chair of the ELN, Lord Des Browne, propose a nationally led, evidence-based peacebuilding paradigm that scales beyond pilots and designs interventions to achieve lasting impact. Core elements include citizen-driven diagnostics, alignment with key public policies, police and military reform where necessary, investment in education and media, and the responsible use of technology. To catalyse this shift, they propose an International Fund for Peace.
The world today stands closer to nuclear catastrophe than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Conflicts involving nuclear-armed states could all too easily escalate to a nuclear confrontation, as global arms control treaties collapse. Steve Barwick, Chair of the Nuclear Education Trust, calls for the UK, as the chair of the group of five ‘official’ nuclear weapon states in the run-up to the 2026 NPT Review Conference, to reject nuclear sharing and prioritise transparency, reinvigorate global nuclear diplomacy, adopt a no-first-use policy, and engage with the TPNW.
The current debate around a possible resumption of nuclear testing introduces a new level of brinkmanship in an already fraught geopolitical climate. As the testing moratorium risks being weaponised for great-power competition, ELN Senior Policy Fellow Julia Berghofer writes that European states, including nuclear-armed ones, must speak with one voice and make clear that nuclear testing is unwise, unnecessary, and unwelcome.
Following recent signals between the US and Russia over the possibility of renewed nuclear testing, we asked members to reflect on what this could mean for the broader global non-proliferation and arms control regime.