To date, the Arctic has played only a minor role in European efforts to achieve digital sovereignty. Yet digital infrastructure in the High North is a key component of this endeavour. The European Union’s (EU) Arctic Strategy, which is due to be updated this year, should therefore not be limited to traditional security issues. This is particularly true in light of hybrid threats in the Baltic Sea region. Of particular importance are European projects to expand Arctic submarine cable infrastructure, which constitute critical infrastructure. However, these initiatives require an ambitious EU that recognises its capacity to deliver innovation and sustainability in the development of green technologies.
The 2026 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) was held in New York in April-May. It was a failure because the delegations had been unable to agree on a final document. This was the third consecutive Review Conference to end without consensus – something that had never happened before in the 56-year history of the NPT. Ahead of the conference, some diplomats and experts had warned that another failure would be catastrophic not just for the treaty but for the entire nuclear order. That is the wrong conclusion to draw. The record of previous Review Conferences, what happened at this year’s meeting and the responses to its outcome all suggest that the NPT – the cornerstone of the nuclear order and an essential pillar of the broader international order – remains resilient. The growing nuclear inequality inherent in the NPT’s division of states parties into five nuclear-weapon states and 186 non-nuclear-weapon states polarises the multilateral nuclear debate in New York, Geneva and Vienna but does not threaten the treaty’s survival. The NPT would be at risk, however, if Russian and Chinese revisionism were to intensify further and US willingness to exercise leadership continued to wane.