For almost three years Ukraine has been the front line of Europe, protecting us all by holding back Russia's plans for conquest and expansion. But now, the war could come much closer to home. The outcome of the US presidential election will decide Ukraine's future - but Vladimir Putin has made it plain his ambition doesn't stop there. And the Kremlin's campaigns of murder and sabotage across the continent and in the UK have already resumed, while Russia has been rebuilding its army faster than Ukraine has been able to destroy it. If the US steps away from the defence of Europe, and the British Armed Forces are hollowed out and still shrinking, who is left to protect us?  

Keir Giles's new book Who Will Defend Europe? looks for the answers. In this presentation and open discussion, Keir will share the results of his research. He will discuss what the US election result means for the UK, and what must be done to safeguard our future against an aggressive Russia bent on attacking us. Most of all, he will explain how the front-line states have been preparing to be the next line of our defence but preparations by Western Europe and the UK lag desperately behind the threat. 

About the speaker:

Keir Giles has spent his career watching, studying and explaining Russia. He is a regular commentator on Russian affairs for international print and broadcast media, as well as publishing research in academic and military publications across Europe and North America. Keir is a Senior Consulting Fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, but has also worked with more than a dozen governments and defence forces around the world predicting and analysing the Russian threat.

After one of the briefest careers on record with the RAF and travelling widely in the Soviet Union, Keir co-founded the first company providing Western pilots the opportunity to fly Soviet military aircraft, at sites near Moscow and in Crimea. Later working with the BBC Monitoring Service in the UK and Russia, he continued to specialise in the Russian military, and transferred to the UK Defence Academy to work on Russian strategy and doctrine, and tracking the development of Russia's plans for war.

Many of Keir's publications explain the Russian approach to warfare, including NATO's "Handbook of Russian Information Warfare" (2016), "Moscow Rules: What Drives Russia to Confront the West" (Brookings, 2019) and "Russia's War on Everybody" (Bloomsbury, 2022).

The event will be chaired by Dr Natasha Kuhrt, Senior Lecturer in International Peace and Security in the Department of War Studies, with Dr Jade McGlynn, a Leverhulme EC Researcher in the War Studies department at King’s College London, serving as the discussant.