Atlantic Council SCOWCROFT CENTER FOR STRATEGY AND SECURITY
ISSUE BRIEF
A next-generation agenda: Bridging Indo-Pacific and European perspectives on security SEPTEMBER 2024
Lauren D. Gilbert, Malthe Munkøe, Hyunseung Yu
Introduction
The Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security works to develop sustainable, nonpartisan strategies to address the most important security challenges facing the United States and the world. The Center honors General Brent Scowcroft’s legacy of service and embodies his ethos of nonpartisan commitment to the cause of security, support for US leadership in cooperation with allies and partners, and dedication to the mentorship of the next generation of leaders. The Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (IPSI) housed within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security informs and shapes the strategies, plans, and policies of the United States and its allies and partners to address the most important rising security challenges in the Indo Pacific, including China’s growing threat to the international order and North Korea’s destabilizing nuclear weapons advancements. IPSI produces innovative analysis, conducts tabletop exercises, hosts public and private convenings, and engages with US, allied, and partner governments, militaries, media, other key private and public sector stakeholders, and publics.
As the global security landscape continues to evolve, increased coordination among likeminded allies is key to defending the rules-based international system— and this holds true beyond the region in which a country lies. The United States and South Korea have long championed cooperation when it comes to deterring authoritarian threats and reinforcing a free and open Indo-Pacific, and European North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries seem to have come to the same conclusion as they consider their deepening stakes in the Indo-Pacific. To advance South Korean-NATO cooperation moving forward, it is vital that nextgeneration experts and officials come together to explore novel methods of collaboration and action-oriented policy recommendations. To this end, the Atlantic Council, in partnership with the Korea Foundation, has built a new agenda for bridging regional perspectives among the United States, South Korea, and European NATO countries to promote further cooperation. To advance this aim, this project took a practical approach to expanding collaboration and improving understanding among the NATO countries and South Korea. It focused on defining areas in which flexible, action-oriented, and informal collaborative arrangements among these countries can provide mutual benefits, creating a basis for deeper and more meaningful collaboration moving forward. Throughout the project, the Atlantic Council and the Korea Foundation convened two private virtual workshops with rising US, South Korean, and European junior and mid-career experts who represent the next generation of policymakers, academics, and private-sector leaders who will operationalize this cooperation during their careers. This “Next-Generation Network” discussed challenges and opportunities for bridging perspectives and building both traditional and nontraditional cooperation in security. Based on the ideas raised during the workshop discussions, the participants offered concrete and actionable recommendations for a next-generation agenda with a particular emphasis on how policymakers and private-sector experts in each region can collectively implement the agenda. This issue brief provides background on recent events in cooperation before highlighting an analysis of the key challenges and opportunities at hand, followed by concrete policy recommendations for bridging perspectives on security cooperation among the United States, South Korea, and European NATO countries.