Kiel International Seapower Symposium
18 June 2026
In cooperation with:
How to Defend Europe at the Northern Flank
KISS26 is held against the backdrop of grave global and political turmoil. With a US administration aggressively seeking influence over Greenland while questioning its role in NATO, alliance coherence is in doubt. Further, the Iran War has the potential to create a global energy crisis that would play into the hands of Russia. Europe has to find a way to prevail under such circumstances and ask whether it has the right assumptions, capabilities and strategies to respond.
Translated into the maritime sphere, the question is: How to defend Europe at the Northern Flank?
KISS26 will discuss some of these pressing questions and aims to provide recommendations to help set Europe on the right course. It will bring together leaders from academia, the military, NGOs, the defense industry and policy-making to share knowledge for mutual empowerment.
High Level Panel: Island, Germany, Danmark, United Kingdom and Canada
Session I: Thinking about the antagonists: Do we get Russia and China right?
Addressing and evaluating a potential conflict by examining the interests, activities and campaigns from Russian and China in the regions. What do we learn from looking at their naval capabilities and procurement? Do we consider their doctrines & tactics correctly and are we understanding the Russian and Chinese rationale?
Session II: A View to the High North and North Atlantic: Interests, Threat Perception and Options
Some views from European countries to encounter the threats und to establish security in the region in order to protect their interests.
What are our strategic assets? What can bring Europe to the table? How do friends and foes see us? Are our assumptions accurate? Are we procuring correctly? What kind of conflict are we planning and preparing for? Is this consistent with the insights from Panel 1?
Session III: Gotland - Island Under Threat
Strategically important since the time of the Hanseatic League, Gotland for this panel stands as a pars pro toto for the Baltic Sea and its re-emergence as a geopolitical hotspot and a Petri Dish for tactics and technologies: The use of merchant vessels as platforms for hybrid attacks against critical maritime infrastructure, the exploitation of international law by Russia’s shadow fleet and the fielding of new technologies and (uncrewed) systems are closely watched by friends and potential adversaries far beyond the Baltic realm. How do we translate this into tactics and doctrines? What does it mean for the implementation of new technologies or future fleet design?
