On Wednesday, October 8, RGSL had the honour to host a public lecture by John Swords, Legal Advisor at NATO. Mr Swords was introduced on behalf of the acting rector by Tjaco van den Hout, Visiting professorial fellow.
Mr Swords, who came to Riga in connection with the Riga Conference, addressed Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty - the core clause establishing the principle of collective defence.
He addressed the complexities of invoking this article and the significance of defining the concept of “aggression” in this article — whether kinetic and non-kinetic, including malign, hybrid operations. He reminded the audience of the fact that NATO as an international organisation does not on itself decide such matters but, rather, individual member states represented in the organisation’s North Atlantic Council.
The presentation by Mr Swords was followed by a spirited question and answer session lasting more than 30 minutes.