Defense News quotes VP and Brent Scowcroft Center Director Barry Pavel on General Dempsey push for NATO to increase security contributions along the Mediterranean:
In addition to the North African security threat, there are also simmering territorial disputes surrounding recent energy finds in the eastern Mediterranean, said Barry Pavel, vice president and director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council.
“We know that where there’s significant new economic activity, security activity follows quickly, especially where there are uncertainties,” he said. “I think the new energy node in the eastern [Mediterranean] is going to also raise some new security issues.
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“We are one incident away from being in a different security era regarding the Ukraine crisis,” Pavel said. “If this explodes and we get large-scale instability in Ukraine, then we are potentially in a situation where we have new insecurities on the border of NATO members.”