| Summary/Abstract |
THE FUNDAMENTAL economic, political and medical challenges before us are universally recognized. Discussion is centered around a second question - namely: How are these challenges effecting global and European agendas? With respect to the East European security agenda, there has been practically no effect. In 2021, the United States and NATO will step up their military activity in Poland and what are known as the Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - and try to create as much trouble as possible for Russia and Belarus. Russia will be the hypothetical adversary in the planned Defender-Europe 21 command post exercise, as in preceding Defender-Europe exercises. This was common knowledge for a long time, but everybody avoided discussing it publicly. That has changed. For example, the Jamestown Foundation1 is no longer wondering whether attacking Russia and Belarus is advisable but is deliberating about what tactics to use in such an attack - for instance, what would be the quickest way to the "Smolensk Gate" [20].
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