Baltic Security Foundation

Olevs Nikers joined the high-level roundtable "A Changed Landscape: Perspectives on Foreign Policy, Migration, and Global Security" at the AABS 2026 Conference at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — alongside Gabrielius Landsbergis (Stanford University), Andres Kasekamp (University of Toronto), Sigita Struberga (LATO), and Agnia Grigas (Atlantic Council), moderated by Professor Steven Witt, with opening remarks by the U.S. Senator Richard Durbin.

The panel addressed the restructuring of the transatlantic alliance, the weaponization of migration by authoritarian states, the future of bipartisan US leadership on global security, and the contested strategic and environmental space of the Baltic Sea — with Olevs Nikers emphasizing that deterrence remains cheaper than war, that Baltic air defense gaps must be closed operationally now rather than awaiting middle term deliveries, and that hosting a brigade-sized US element repositioning from Germany to the Baltics is a concrete offer to Washington.