EDITORIAL

John M Nomikos
(RIEAS Executive Director)

Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 7 September 2026

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies

On 11 May 2026, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, warned that armed drones had become "by far and away the leading cause of ci-vilian deaths" in Sudan's war, killing at least 880 civilians between January and April of this year and accounting for more than eighty percent of recorded civilian fatalities in that period.1 The statistic deserves closer attention than it has received in European capitals, because some of the aircraft now driving Sudan’s increasingly lethal drone war originated in the factories of a NATO member state.... Read more

Europe has decided that defending is no longer enough. The strategy it is reaching for has two edges, and one of them can be taken up now, at low cost, by nearly everyone already in the fight.

By Celia D. Hanley
(Founder and President of Catalina Intelligent Solutions LLC (CatalinaIQ). A former Senior Operations Officer of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, with over forty years in clandestine operations, counterintelligence, and international security, she now develops cognitive security and risk mitigation programs for private-sector, government, and academic audiences.)

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the U.S. Government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author's views. This article is based entirely on open-source, unclassified information.

Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 7 September 2026

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies

Something has shifted in how Europe talks about hybrid threats. For most of the past decade the language was defensive: resilience, situational awareness, protection of critical infrastructure. In the first months of 2026 that changed. The European Council on Foreign Relations published a strategy titled from shield to sword. On 16 March 2026 the Council of the European Union committed the bloc to prevent, deter, and respond to hybrid campaigns irrespective of their origin, scale and intensity, and weeks earlier it had sanctioned six individuals for information manipulation.... Read more on the Article and Read more on CatalinaIQ Profile

John M Nomikos
(RIEAS Executive Director)

Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 30 August 2026

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies

The recent friction between Greece and Saudi Arabia should neither be inflated into a rupture nor dismissed as an administrative misunderstanding. What is taking place is more subtle:
Riyadh appears to be drawing the conceptual boundaries of its relationship with Athens.

Saudi Arabia is not turning Greece into an adversary. But it is demonstrating that its partnership with Greece does not amount to strategic alignment against Turkey, does not give Athens
privileged influence over Saudi regional choices and, above all, does not make Greece indispensable.... Read more

Prof. Dr. Darko Trifunovic
(RIEAS Director of International Relations, Director and Founder, Institute for National and International Security (INIS) and Editor -in-Chief, Security Science Journal)

Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 30 August 2026

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies

The possibility of a future military confrontation between Turkey and Israel should no longer be examined exclusively through the prism of inflammatory political rhetoric. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's increasingly hostile discourse toward Israel is important, but rhetoric alone does not constitute evidence of an intention to wage war. A serious security assessment requires something different: identifying and interpreting political, military, geographical, ideological, economic, and alliance-related indicators that, when examined together, may reveal the gradual creation of conditions under which confrontation becomes possible.... Read more

Demetrios Tsailas (ret Admiral)
(He has taught for many years, operational planning, strategy, and security, to senior officers at the Supreme Joint War College. He is a member and researcher of the Institute for National and International Security)

Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 30 August 2026

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies

Summary

The Eastern Mediterranean is entering a more consequential phase of strategic competition. What has historically been presented as a collection of Greek-Turkish disputes over maritime boundaries, Cyprus, airspace, and energy resources is increasingly developing into a wider contest over the rules governing maritime space, regional security, European sovereignty, and the cohesion of NATO.... Read more

Cognitive warfare has reached the Eastern Mediterranean, and much of the answer to it is already European.

Celia D. Hanley
(Founder and President of Catalina Intelligent Solutions LLC (CatalinaIQ). A former Senior Operations Officer of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, with over forty years in clandestine operations, counterintelligence, and international security, she now develops cognitive security and risk mitigation programs for private-sector, government, and academic audiences).

All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the U.S. Government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.

Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 14 August 2026

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies

A migrant surge builds at a European land border, organized not by desperation alone but by a neighboring state that decided to open the gate. GPS signals fall across civilian airspace over the Eastern Mediterranean. An undersea cable is severed. A manufactured story about a national leader spread faster than any correction can chase it. In most ministries, and most newspapers, each of these is filed as a separate problem: migration, aviation safety, infrastructure protection, disinformation. ... Read more