European Cyber Agora 2025

Over the past few years, we have witnessed a convergence of the latest technologies to amplify existing geopolitical goals. Some of this has happened on the physical battlefield, in locations like Ukraine, but many impacts of these trends have been felt closer to home with increased cybersecurity incidents. This has all created an urgency within defence to innovate and adopt the latest digital technologies. This workstream explores not only the perspectives from leading stakeholders in NATO and national agencies, but also brings in voices from the private sector who have been leading this transition to map our challenges and opportunities.

Workstream Objectives

This workstream aims to bring forward both public and private perspectives on ensuring European resilience; with a particular focus on amplifying positive stories about digital transformation in organizations like NATO and the lessons thereof.

• Strategic objective: Encourage European policymakers to reflect on a resilience in a cyber context and realize how the digital transformation can amplify this.
• Medium-term objective: Collect perspectives from a broad range of public and private stakeholders on effective approaches towards enhancing European security via digital transformation. Form these into an effective policy brief.
• Long-term objective: Positively influence national and NATO perspectives on digital transformation in the defence sector.

Thematic Introduction

Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, issues of security and defence have been top of mind in Europe and in NATO. This urgency has been made all the more politically salient in the past few months, with several key milestones: including Ursula von der Leyen pledging to appoint a defence commissioner, NATO undergoing ambitious digital transformations, and national elections throughout Europe pushing defence and security as a key campaign focus. However, modern security and defence is more than just procuring new equipment and increasing defence investment. As demonstrated by modern conflicts like Ukraine, effective defence and resilience needs to embrace the digital era we live in.

This shift to include the digital in defence takes several forms. First, defence needs to be aware of the increasing cybersecurity threat actors that seek to undermine their stability. Second, defence agencies need to embark on ambitious digital transformation journeys, seeking to utilize the latest technologies in AI and cloud computing to ensure their services are resilient, efficient, and optimized. Finally, defence agencies and bodies like NATO need to be on the cutting edge of technological developments, which would entail being proactive in fostering the European tech ecosystem.

While this may appear like a lofty list, there is clear appetite in Europe to get started. NATO especially has been proactive by embracing a digital transformation and fostering their tech ecosystems. The 2024 NATO Summit was a particular milestone, with NATO releasing a new AI strategy, widely recognizing issues like interoperability, and continuing to foster defence incubators like DIANA. Likewise, the European Commission has also embraced defence and security, especially as newly re-elected VP Ursula von der Leyen ran her re-election campaign on these themes. She built heavily on this vision within her July 2024 Political Guidelines, showcasing initiatives such as the European Democracy Shield, and action on her defence commitments. But as we are poised to get a European Defence Commissioner, it will be interesting to observe how their profile will overlap with cybersecurity and cyber resilience. Nevertheless, VDL’s recent words at the 2024 GLOBSEC forum were inspiring and reaffirms that security and defence will remain top of mind at the European Commission, stating that “the EU is intrinsically a security project”, and that “the focus must be on putting security at the heart of everything we do”.

As the ambitions of the EU, NATO, and National governments become more solidified in enabling the digital transformation of their defence and security, there is a greater role for close collaboration with leaders in the private sector on best practices. This workstream of the 2025 Cyber Agora will seek to gather relevant voices and perspectives to advance discussions on lessons, challenges, and opportunities as we work towards a digital and resilient Europe.

Guiding Questions

• What are the threats facing European resilience?
• How can Europe best ensure that its defence is ready and able to defend itself against new techno-geopolitical threats?
• What are the roles for national governments, international bodies like NATO and the EU, and the private sector in fostering the digital transformation necessary to ensure this resilience?

Get involved

We will be organizing numerous events across the three workstreams leading up to the annual European Cyber Agora conference in 2025. We welcome participation from across all sectors and encourage you to reach out to us via: EuropeanCyberAgora@microsoft.com, marius.houwen@iss.europa.eu, JTrehu@gmfus.org