The global landscape in recent years has undergone rapid changes, particularly in the realms of foreign and security policy. Drawing upon his years of first-hand experience, Dr. Vad discusses what has led to the new parameters in foreign and security policy, as well as what can possibly be done to improve the international situation in these areas. Dr. Vad focuses on digitization, geopolitical changes, and the new threats and risks as the emerging topics to tackle in the modern era.

Digitization of the military, and society in general, has drastically shifted priorities in great power struggles. In the past, dominance of Eurasia's maritime routes and military bases was crucial for classic geopolitical struggles. Even though such tactics are still important today, as seen in Putin's seizure of Crimea for access to the Black Sea, they have been superseded by the importance of technological dominance. Unhindered access to information, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence are now key in expressing global dominance. The US is the leader in digital and virtual space, with unbeatable monopolies in Facebook and Apple to name just two companies. However, China is now being viewed as a serious contender to the US with their Great Firewall and companies like Huawei. Political strategy now revolves around defending the political sovereignty granted by whoever controls the flows of technology and communications in the world. These technological developments are why old treaties are no longer relevant to the world order, and Dr. Vad believes there is a growing need to develop new treaties equipped to address these new technologies.

Geopolitical change is another area requiring reevaluation in foreign and security policy. The influx of leaders such as Trump, Putin, Erdogan, and Xi Jinping has led to a shift from maintaining the balance of power in the past to wanting international superiority. The biggest geopolitical change of the modern day is how China is now the biggest challenger to the Western world. China's Silk Road policy is dominating Eurasia through nonmilitary tools, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is the counter-model to the World Bank. Such actions are slowly but steadily changing the world's political and financial orders. Traditional world hegemony, with the US at the helm, is being called into question. Dr. Vad emphasizes that Europeans need to assume more global responsibility and work with the US to compete with China.

New threats and risks have also contributed to changing the parameters of global politics. Recent attacks on Saudi Arabian oil fields with drones showcase how the use of drones, unmanned vehicles, and offensive cyber operations have minimized the weapons gap between great powers and lesser states or non-state actors due to their less expensive and equalizing qualities. The use of hybrid warfare has resulted in a mix of direct cyber attacks and the spread of fake news and propaganda, to give just a few examples of the changing landscape in warfare. There must be a new security strategy not defined exclusively on a territorial basis, as cyberwar and informational warfare have made territorial strategies obsolete. No longer are tanks expected to cross over borders in order to activate defense mechanisms- these invasions begin far earlier in the age of growing global digitization. Ongoing revolutionary changes are forcing us, as Dr. Vad argues, to adapt and find new security and military answers.

Given that digitization, geopolitical processes, and new threats have shifted the parameters of foreign security policies, where do we go from here? Dr. Vad advocates for the European Union to step up and update their military infrastructure in order to play a larger, stabilizing role in international affairs. The EU has never been as dependent on the US for military policy as it is today. Despite spending 3 times the military budget of Russia, much of EU military funding is wasted in superfluous programs, with outcomes such as 90 weapons programs in the EU as opposed to only 22 in the US. The EU must do more for defense and burden-sharing, and get these new security challenges under control before they are too far out of hand. By developing EU policy as complementary to those of the US and NATO, there is hope to build new parameters for foreign and security policy in the modern era.

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hosted by Professor Michael G. Plummer


Erich E. Vad is a retired General. From 2006 until 2013 he was Military Policy Advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, and Secretary of the Federal Security Council, the highest ranking Security Body of the Federal Republic of Germany.

In 2015 Vad was a Guest Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University SAIS in Bologna and Washington DC, as well as at the National Defense University in Washington DC. Today he holds teaching positions at the Universities of Munich and Salzburg.

Vad's career has taken him to the US, NATO and the EU in Brussels, as well as to the German Ministry of Defence, the Federal Foreign Office, the German Bundestag and the Federal Chancellery in Berlin.

Erich Vad received his doctorate while serving as a young officer in the Bundeswehr and under the supervision of Israeli Historian Jehuda L. Wallach; his doctoral thesis, entitled "Carl von Clausewitz's concept of strategy", focused on the modern relevance of Clausewitz's strategic thinking.