Estabilished in 2019, The Baltic Security Foundation (BSF) promotes the security and defense of the Baltic Sea region.

The Foundation is a result of the Baltic Security Strategy Project (2017-2019) that gathered experts on defence, societal security and economic security to assess the shared challenges for the Baltic States and recommend solutions.

BSF gathers Baltic experts and security experts from the region and beyond. It provides a platform for discussion and research, expert networking, expert mobility, and promotes finding and advocating for solutions that lead to a stronger regional security in military and other areas.

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Olevs

Olevs Nikers, President

Senior analyst at the Jamestown Foundation. Former chief expert at the Ministry of Defense of Latvia (2001-2019).

Otto

Otto Tabuns, Director

Foreign and security policy expert for 10 years. Co-host of the “Latvia Weekly” political news program.

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Our Recent Articles

The Three Seas Initiative

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The Three Seas Initiative

By Matthew Thomas on March 16, 2020

Last month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the United States would commit up to $1 Billion in support for the Three Seas Initiative. In so doing, Congress and the administration are providing much needed assistance toward developing the economic and security infrastructure in Central and Eastern Europe. This initiative, launched in 2015 by the Polish and Croatian presidents, aims to make Central Europe a “backbone of European resilience,” in the words of Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

Interoperability at Sea: Sweden and Finland

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Interoperability at Sea: Sweden and Finland

By Matthew Thomas on March 12, 2020

Last week, Finland and Sweden conducted naval cooperation exercises in the Baltic Sea. Given that these two countries have a long tradition of close cooperation in military affairs, this seems fairly mundane. But these exercises were highly unusual, as Finland’s FNS Uusimaa took orders from Swedish naval command, and Sweden’s HMS Helsingborg received orders from Finland’s command center in Turku. This was the first time in the history of Finnish-Swedish naval cooperation that ships took orders from the opposite country’s command.

Defending the Suwałki Gap

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Defending the Suwałki Gap

By Matthew Thomas on February 27, 2020

At the end of last month, Lithuania and Poland announced that the two countries would each assign a brigade to NATO Headquarters in Poland to “train and act together” for the defense of the Suwałki Gap. According to the signed act of affiliation, Lithuania’s Iron Wolf Mechanized Brigade and Poland’s 15th Mechanized Brigade will train jointly to prepare for operations in the Gap, though they will remain under their own national command.

Baltic Fund

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Baltic Fund

By BSF Team on February 2, 2020

On November 28, 2019, Baltic Security Foundation team participated in the NATO Eastern Flank Security conference, hosted by Warsaw Institute. Following a keynote speech by Piotr Naimski, Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland, Government Plenipotentiary for Strategic Energy Infrastructure, Mr Olevs Nikers spoke at the panel on energy security, covering political and economic issues of nuclear power and natural gas, while Mr Otto Tabuns gave his views on intraregional and European challenges for Baltic security at the discussion on defence.