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For Your Information / NATO's Riga StratCom Dialogue 2026

« Last post by Roger on June 07, 2026, 12:49:39 PM »

Workers' Weekly    https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-26/ww26-17/ww26-17.htm

NATO's Riga StratCom Dialogue 2026
"Strategic Communications" to Justify NATO's Proxy War Against Russia

A NATO "strategic communications" conference called the Riga StratCom Dialogue, took place from June 3-4, 2026, in Riga, Latvia [1]. Like last year, the Riga StratCom (short for Strategic Communications) Dialogue was held in support of NATO's ongoing proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. But it also reflected NATO's complete support for and complicity with the US/Israel criminal war against Iran, Lebanon and the continuing of their genocide in Palestine. Likewise, NATO must be held complicit in the ongoing US threats to Venezuela, the DPRK and the threatened invasion of Cuba by the US.

The Riga StratCom Dialogue 2026 invited military and academic attendees as "policymakers, strategists, communicators, and thinkers" to "widen the frame of security thinking". This debate about strategy "helps reclaim authorship of the future," they say, "in a world where both conflict and communication are increasingly automated, ensuring that even in times of rupture, strategy remains an act of imagination, responsibility, and care for the world we share." As though their declaration would make it so! It is quite vacuous, as is the flowery language employed as a whole. It is like the "strategists" inhabited a different world.

The conference's published theme was "Life is a Miracle. Strategic Communications in an Age of Rupture". What could it mean by this! The StratCom website explains: "Life remains fragile, astonishing, and deeply beautiful, yet this truth is increasingly obscured by war, systemic violence, and the normalisation of human suffering." It is astonishing that a "rupture" of NATO's own making, its warmongering in Europe and on the world scene, is not identified as a source of such war, systemic violence and human suffering. This is certainly no "miracle". Equally astonishing is the lack of acknowledgement that the peoples of the world everywhere refuse to accept the warmongering actions and outlook of this Anglo/US NATO military alliance, and actively seek to oppose all it stands for.


Protests against NATO's "Parliamentary Assembly" at Dayton, Ohio, May 25 2025 - Photo: KaJeza Hawkins

While the main NATO summit is scheduled for July 7-8, 2026, in Ankara, Turkey, the organisers say that the Riga StratCom Dialogue served as a preparatory and thematic conference addressing "communication, information security, and strategic planning". Other NATO-related workshops and meetings took place in May.

The discussions at this conference indicated that NATO's "strategic communication" plans are to shift the emphasis to the "Indo-Pacific", "Taiwan", "Japan" and the "Pacific Islands" - all in the programme of the conference. However, the fraudulent presentations on communicating NATO as a "defence" organisation were most notably aimed at topics including "Rearming the West: How to Communicate Military Modernisation?", "The Cognitive Frontline: Offensive Influence Operations and Targeting", "AI-Driven War on Cognition: Closing the Governance Gap","Winning the Cognitive Battlefield" and "Shaping Reality: Whole Society Mobilisation During Crises".

These topics reveal that whilst NATO wants to shift the attention of its "strategic communications" to cover its interference, provocations and military confrontations in East Asia, it is in fact completely mired in trying to control its narrative with European member states and with its NATO-allied Ukrainian regime. It is faced with the problem of how to attempt to make acceptable to the people of these countries the militarisation of all their economies for this proxy war of the US, Britain, and the European powers in Ukraine against Russia, presenting this as "defence" and "security". It is further complicated by the fact that NATO in this conference also threatened Belarus by name, along with other countries in Europe, West and East Asia.

Even though the opening session of the conference discussed "Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks: Impact on Reassurance and Deterrence?", there have been no reports of proposals from this NATO conference of any communication in support of the Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks that was claimed to be being addressed. The main stage panel discussion in this connection featured Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže and Estonian Secretary General Jonatan Vseviov, alongside former NATO Assistant Secretary General David Cattler. The approach was summed up in the website blurb as: "How could the ongoing peace negotiations impact societal resilience, especially in terms of reassurance and the credibility of deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic region?" Revealing the tone, Roman Sheremeta, Fellow at Centre for Eastern European Democracy, who also spoke on the opening panel, said in a Facebook post that his "central argument" was against some of those who are "preaching a need for ceasefire".

In the main stage session "The Cognitive Frontline: Offensive Influence Operations and Targeting", it was claimed that "the main battlefield is increasingly in the mind. NATO and allies are moving from reactive messaging to offensive influence operations that shape adversary decisions, constrain choices, and force reactions". This was addressed by Colonel Brent Hamilton, Strategic Information Operations Planner, US European Command; Jay H Janzen, Allied Command Operations Communications Director, NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe; Kateryna Stepanenko, Deputy Director of the Cognitive Warfare Project; and Lieutenant Colonel Oliver Donaghy who commands the UK's 5th Information Operations Task Force within the British Army's Land Special Operations Force (formerly 77th Brigade). Quite a line-up. Whilst the speeches and discussion have not been reported, and may not be, the programme states that the session addressed that "precision targeting of political, military, and societal audiences is synchronised with broader actions, turning perception into a tool of strategic effect. Success depends on controlling the narrative while managing credibility, escalation, and the risks of misperception."

Misperception indeed. In other words, whilst NATO continues to escalate its proxy war against Russia it has "societal audiences" to be "synchronised" with this war "escalation". That is the point. For NATO's "strategic communications", Britain's imperialist interests need to be justified alongside those of the US, Germany and France. Especially, these NATO stalwarts and apologists aim to justify using Ukrainian forces as the cannon fodder in their war against Russia and occupying other East European countries with their armies and intelligence forces. There is not a shred of an attempt to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Russia or to give support for peaceful resolution to the conflict that goes against their interests.

This is a conflict that over four years has led to hundreds of thousands being killed, a conflict which NATO played the major role in provoking from before the 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine. This is the reality of Britain's involvement with its armed forces involved in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and supplying and guiding the use of missiles and weapons in their proxy war with the killing of tens of thousands of people both in Ukraine and Russia.

At the end of the NATO Riga StratCom Dialogue on June 4, Janis Sarts, the Director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, made the closing remarks solidifying this aim. In a short post on Facebook he said: "It is going to get worse, there will be more adversarial campaigns and we will have to face them in the best possible way... Russia stops when it gets hit in the face." [2].

So much for the fragility of life. The NATO Riga StratCom Dialogue justified NATO's ongoing proxy war against Russia and its dangerous escalation. If this desperate stuff continues to be adopted in these military and academic circles this will continue their future rooted in hankering after the colonial past of the US, Britain and the other old powers of Europe. NATO and these old powers will continue their attempt to wreck the modern world with their proxy and genocidal wars. But it is going to get worse for them with the heroic resistance of the people, as has been shown in Palestine, Iran and Lebanon. In fact, the leading NATO countries will continue to come up against the fierce resistance of the vast majority of peoples and countries of the world, including resistance in their own countries from the masses of the people who desire genuine peace and not war.

The anti-war movement must continue to oppose and expose NATO's lies about being an alliance for peace and democracy. The necessity is for peaceful solutions to the conflicts in the world, as well as resolving the many problems faced by society and humanity on all fronts.

Britain Must Withdraw from the Aggressive NATO Alliance!
No to NATO! Yes to Peace!

Notes
1. Riga StratCom Dialogue 2026
https://rigastratcomdialogue.org/
2. NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence
https://www.facebook.com/StratComCOE/

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For Your Information / Munich Security Conference 2026

« Last post by Roger on February 22, 2026, 10:38:45 AM »

Munich Security Conference 2026

Reflection of the US-Led Imperialist System in Steep Decline that Threatens Only War

Workers' Weekly https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-26/ww26-05/ww26-05.htm

The 62nd Munich Security Conference (MSC) that took place from February 13 to 15, 2026, produced no communiqué or statement, yet once again was revealed as the reflection of the deepening crisis of the US-led imperialist system in steep decline that threatens only war. The organisers themselves could not conceal this reality. Their flagship publication, the Munich Security Report 2026, was ironically revealing, titled - Under Destruction [1]. It highlighted that "[t]he world has entered a period of wrecking-ball politics. Sweeping destruction - rather than careful reforms and policy corrections - is the order of the day" and that "the US-led post-1945 international order is now under destruction". Yet, there was no drawing of the obvious conclusions about the reality that neither their claims to previous "careful reforms and policy corrections", nor now their "wrecking-ball politics" have brought about security and peace to Europe and the world in the "US-led post-1945 order". In fact, the very opposite.

Britain, Germany, France and the EU leaders have continued to embrace the US "wrecking-ball politics" themselves amidst the wreckage of their own decline. Thus at the conference, in the name of the security of Europe these old powers, now calling themselves the "coalition of the willing", pledged to escalate their proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. They gave their support to the US in its war threats to Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and the DPRK and continued support for Israel in its war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.

German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz was the first to address the conference on February 13 [2]. He received much exaggerated praise in the press for adding his own pessimistic twist to the "under destruction" theme. He said: "This conference has a sombre title: Under Destruction. This title appears to suggest that the international order, which was based on rights and rules, is in the process of being destroyed. - I fear we must put this even more bluntly: this order, as imperfect as it was even at the best of times, no longer exists." However, the hypocrisy of this "rules-based international order" which had led to NATO's move eastwards to threaten Russia in Ukraine and on all sides was ignored as he blamed Russia as a justification for Europe to now become militaristic. He saw a fierce Germany in the lead announcing measures to restore Germany's military industry and forces. As many people have commented this is an approach that has not worked so well before for Germany!

In this way Merz warned Europe to prepare for "a decade of danger" and demanded higher defence spending, faster rearmament, and "unwavering support for Ukraine". However, Merz, like Starmer and Macron, embodies a vision for Europe that wants to act like a great power but cannot escape its dependence on the United States and in this way Merz's bravado barely concealed Germany's strategic paralysis alongside Britain and France. His call, like Starmer regarding Britain, for a more assertive Germany rang hollow - an echo of a past that cannot be revived.

French President Emmanuel Macron also addressed the Conference on February 13 [3] casting himself as Europe's visionary-in-chief making a call for Europe to assert itself as a sovereign geopolitical power. He said that "a stronger Europe will be a better friend for its allies, especially for the United States". He repeated his call for "European strategic autonomy", insisting that Europe must not be "vassals" of any great power, while simultaneously urging deeper alignment with NATO and continued escalation of NATO's proxy war in Ukraine. The contradiction was as glaring as with Starmer and Merz. Macron wants Europe to stand on its own feet, but only so long as it marches in step with Washington. The performance of Macron, alongside Merz and Starmer, in Munich captured the essence of the EU's crisis - a leadership class that talks of independence while remaining structurally dependent, that speaks of peace while fuelling war, and that cannot decide whether it fears American decline more than it fears a world no longer organised around "Western" dominance.

Speaking on February 14, Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered what was hailed by the organisers as a "landmark address" [4]. This was interesting because clearly the US was seen as the architect of the "wrecking-ball politics" spoken about in the conference. But this was an attempt by Rubio to paper over the ongoing and increasing contradictions and tensions between the US under President Donald Trump and the old European powers at the head of NATO. It was a chilling call by Rubio for Europe to re-embrace its colonial legacy and Eurocentric values. He hailed "thousands of years of Western civilisation". He declared that the US "may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe", jointly insulting the people of the Americas and Europe. This became even more ironic with the words of Rubio railing against the "a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people".

Rubio then claimed that the US was for peace and security, saying that it was not the UN but "American leadership that freed captives from barbarians and brought about a fragile truce" for Israel. In other words, condemning the Palestinians for resisting, and justifying Israeli ongoing genocidal crimes. He tried to justify the criminal bombing of Iran, lying that it was to "constrain the nuclear program of radical Shia clerics in Tehran. That required 14 bombs dropped with precision from American B-2 bombers." He also tried to justify the US act of state terrorism against Venezuela and its people and the kidnapping of the President of the Bolivian Republic of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores abusing the President of Venezuela as a "narcoterrorist dictator in Venezuela". On Ukraine, not only did the US alongside Britain and the EU provoke and support the Ukraine war with Russia in 2022, but Rubio tried to say that this is a war that the US claims to be negotiating an end, whilst in reality increasing the oil sanctions on Russia and that "American weaponry is being sold for the Ukrainian war effort".

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also spoke at the conference on February 14 [5]. Reeling from the political crisis at home, Starmer was determined to show that Britain remains a loyal foot soldier of US strategy and that it follows the US "wrecking-ball" wherever it goes, even though more and more countries at the conference in Europe were reluctant to follow. Starmer said that the "US remains an indispensable power" and that "we recognise that things are changing. The US National Security Strategy spells out that Europe must take primary responsibility for its own defence," declaring "that is the new law". In other words, he attempted to align Britain even more tightly with Washington. He dismissed the irony of Brexit by attempting to present Britain as the leader in Europe, trying to align Europe with Britain, when he said that "as Europe, we must stand on our own two feet and that means being bold". On this Starmer said: "We must build our hard power, because that is the currency of the age. We must be able to deter aggression. And yes, if necessary, we must be ready to fight." In other words, Starmer offered no political vision beyond Britain's own "wrecking-ball politics" to ensure there is no peace between Ukraine and Russia. So, no peace in Europe and doubling down on militarisation and arming the "coalition of the willing" for its ongoing proxy war in Ukraine against Russia whether the war continues, or whether there is a peace agreement.

According to reports, the US threat to re-attack Iran was not discussed openly in the main forums and Iranian officials are barred from attending the conference. However, Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi criticised the Munich Security Conference and said that the annual security gathering had "turned into the 'Munich Circus'" when it comes to Iran, blaming the European Union and Germany and accusing European powers of losing influence in negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme. He added that "our friends in the region are far more effective and helpful than an empty-handed and peripheral E3" and claimed that Germany "is leading the way in wholly surrendering its regional policy to Israel". However, it was reported on the sidelines of the conference, Reza Pahlavi - the son of Iran's former monarch - said that US military intervention could help accelerate political change inside Iran and claimed Washington should avoid prolonged negotiations with Tehran over a nuclear deal. Indeed, his remarks even on the sidelines of the conference highlighted the circus that the MSC has become and the false claims that it represents an event for security and not war for the people of Europe and the world.

However, there was some sense of accounting at the MSC when justice was reflected, not from Europe but from the East in the keynote speech by China's foreign minister Wang Yi [6] in a Conversation with China. He rightly said among other important points: "There needs to be greater democracy in international relations, global affairs should be discussed by all and the future of the world should be decided by all."

For many years we have seen that the MSC's description of itself is no longer true. Set up in 1963 in the Cold War period it aimed to by-pass the United Nations as the international security body. The MSC claimed to be the "world's leading forum for debating international security policy". However, the MSC is more and more becoming incapable to come to any decisions. Instead it has become a rally for the warmongers and not even a forum. Russia Today (RT) reported that the MSC "resembled a rally of a self-styled 'coalition of the willing' for war. That, unfortunately, is consistent with Germany's long tradition of failing to draw the right lessons from history. Western European leaders spoke almost exclusively about rearmament and the creation of an independent military capability aimed, openly or implicitly, at confrontation with Russia. The tone was unmistakable: preparation for war, not peace. At the same time, participants repeated the familiar mantra that 'more must be done' to ensure Ukraine's victory. The contradiction went largely unnoticed. What emerged instead was a disturbing impression that Western Europe's war party has overwhelmed everything else, including common sense and the instinct for self-preservation." [7]

Conclusion

No path to peace was discussed at the MSC. No political settlement was considered to resolve the issues with the Russian Federation that the leaders of Britain and the EU blamed. Only more weapons, more destruction, more denial of peace and no real security for the peoples of Europe and the world. The contradiction was glaring: A conference supposedly devoted to "security" endorsing policies of warring factions that make the world profoundly insecure. The MSC was revealed as the reflection of the deepening crisis of the US-led imperialist system in steep decline that threatens only war.

Fight For the Alternative

Security is defined by defending the well-being of the people and the rights of all. The peoples have the right to live in a peaceful world, where conflicts are resolved through international co-operation and negotiation among peoples and countries. Security does not lie with these warmongers and their war preparations. Nor does it lie with the prerogatives of the rich, their arms manufactures and their spheres of contention that fuel division and wars among countries, nationalities and peoples. For the working class and people, the emphasis must be that it is they that have to work to consolidate themselves as the power to combat this warmongering, violence, dictate and militarism. This with their sights set on constituting themselves as an Anti-War Government, and all that entails about authority and power resting with the people who desire peace. The initiative lies with the people and their anti-war movement in Britain and throughout the world.

Notes
1. Under Destruction - Munich Security Report 2026
https://securityconference.org/en/publications/munich-security-report/2026/
2. Speech by the Federal Chancellor at the Munich Security Conference on 13. February 2026 in Munich
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/federal-government/speech-munich-security-conference-2407298
3. Emmanuel Macron Remarks @ MSC 2026 (Transcript)
https://singjupost.com/emmanuel-macron-remarks-msc-2026-transcript/
4. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/02/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-at-the-munich-security-conference
5. Speech - PM speech during the Munich Security Conference: 14 February
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-during-the-munich-security-conference-14-february
6. Keynote Speech by H.E. Wang Yi at the 62nd Munich Security Conference Conversation with China
https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/wjbzhd/202602/t20260215_11860435.html
7. The war party takes Munich - The Munich Security Conference again became a rally, not a forum
https://www.facebook.com/fforbiddennews/posts/the-war-party-takes-munichthe-munich-security-conference-again-became-a-rally-no/916361661320058/

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Notes towards a new anti-war 'epic' ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on December 14, 2025, 10:57:25 AM »

In/on which, retaining a careful/helping hand on our wallets and/or pocketbooks, we meet Cuthbert ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Notes towards a new anti-war 'epic' ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on December 14, 2025, 06:56:17 AM »

After Aristophanes/lisa@strata: ..
Willingly. All o'this was a/A.(degraded) (so/too/2) long time(s) ago ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Nostalgia? In The Beginning ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on November 20, 2025, 03:20:15 PM »

 ... the ‘curious-silly’ ... (strange-‘rLy) blank-faced’ Bri(d)get Fil’p.son.., ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Nostalgia? In The Beginning ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on November 20, 2025, 02:45:14 PM »

... X.strap.O’late.shun ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Stopping Yesterday's Wars Today and Tomorrow ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on November 20, 2025, 02:40:53 PM »

... ‘summer’ ‘24 ?(!) ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Notes towards a new anti-war 'epic' ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on November 16, 2025, 02:31:27 PM »

It was Apollo who started it ...
Blame it on the gods/God ...
Who splash the Earth with pain-drenched blood(s) ...
And then (‘clean souls’) wash it away with floods ....

But now, god(‘s)-forsaken ...
We are left to ‘CHANCE’ ...
& wave goodbye 2 our/war (atomicA.L.) particles ...
(And ‘humanity’ can escape its ‘responsibilities’...) ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Notes towards a new anti-war 'epic' ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on November 16, 2025, 07:01:10 AM »

... it was Apollo (the ‘god’ - sic.) who(m) seasoned tales of arms and (hi.hohoho)men with ‘peppar/pre-prepared’ dust ‘excuZes’ ...

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South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: Notes towards a new anti-war 'epic' ...

« Last post by Phil Talbot on November 13, 2025, 12:38:20 AM »

Plaigurism?/Quotation?/Recyclin’?/...etc ...

Living in a (tick) B.O.x: ‘.... i’m Built 4 “strength” & made ma(I)d with 100% recycled “content” ...’

Mad “king” ‘sa sa sa(d) sa(yingtong) by the C.see.sea(?):

‘No, no, no, no! Come, let’s away to prison.
We two alone will sing like birds i’ the cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing, I’ll kneel down.
And ask of thee forgiveness: so we’ll live,
And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
At gilded butterflies, and hear the poor rogues
Talk of court news; and we’ll talk with them too, —
Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out: —
And take upon us the mystery of things,
As if we were God’s spies: and we’ll wear out,
In a wall’d prison, packs and sects of great ones,
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.’