North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has launched
Trident Juncture Military Exercise in Italy to test the alliance’s ability to
respond to new security threats. It will also demonstrate NATO’s capability to
deal with conventional military engagements to more subtle hybrid warfare
techniques and propaganda. It is the biggest military exercise conducted by
alliance in past 13 years as it has mobilized around 36,000 soldiers, sailors
and airmen from more than 30 countries of NATO.
The operational
centre for the exercise is based in the Sicilian city Trapani (Italy). It will
take place till early November 2015 and extend into Spain, Portugal and
adjacent waters. The exercise envisions a fictitious invasion of a small
alliance member by a large country, followed by creating a crisis with ethnic
and religious dimensions. It also envisions threats to energy supplies and
navigational freedom along with risks of terrorism and cyberattacks. But now
they are held due to recent changes in global geopolitical scenario in
Mediterranean and West Asian region. The geopolitical scenario has changed
after Russia’s annexation of Crimea peninsula of Ukraine in February 2014
followed by support of eastern Ukrainian separatists and attacks against
moderate rebels in Syria.
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