Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shattered the foundations of European security. Over the past few months, NATO and individual allies have stepped up their support of Ukraine, and sought to bolster deterrence in Eastern Europe. They have also vowed to increase defense spending. One of the main challenges going forward will be optimizing such spending, and ensuring it adds value strategically, operationally and technologically. This is where innovation comes in. NATO has been paying increasing attention to the twin challenge of how to respond to emerging and disruptive technologies (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Quantum, Robotics, etc.) and how to preserve a military-technological edge. This will be one of the priorities of the Alliance’s upcoming summit in June 2022 in Madrid. This line of effort dovetails with similar initiatives on the part of the European Union (EU) and its member states in the area of defence technological-industrial innovation.

In what ways can NATO and the EU support defence and technological innovation? And how can they ensure that current efforts to innovate are in line with the new strategic and operational realities? What does the war in Ukraine teach us in the area of innovation and emerging and disruptive technologies?

To address these questions, and feed into ongoing transatlantic and European debates on defence innovation, Elcano will organise a high-level dialogue in 2 June 2022 in Madrid, in cooperation with NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division and Spain’s Centro para el Desarrollo de la Tecnología y la Industria (CDTI). The dialogue will include a public and a private segment. The public event will seek to gather views from NATO, the EU and Spain on the key issues on innovation policies and hubs for the defence sector. The private workshop will zoom in on some of the lessons of the Ukraine war in the area of cyber-defence as well as other emerging and disruptive technologies.