Last week, at AFCEA’s TechNet Europe 2026 (15-16 September) in Berlin, NATO C2COE Director Colonel Mietta Groeneveld gave a keynote titled “Deterrence Campaign Plans and C2 in the Shifting Threat Environment: What Is Needed to Deter and Defend Today Against Increasing Hybrid Threats?”
The event brought together the German side of digital transformation, and we saw a clear shift in today’s challenge toward hybrid threats. These hybrid threats demand a total rethinking of C2 structures and decision-making processes, so that command and control can keep pace with adversaries who operate below the threshold of armed conflict.
“We have this old equilibrium that we worked on showing that we are very strong is going to be good enough. It’s not at all good enough. So, if you want to get to this new equilibrium, and if you want to get the guinea pig back in the box, we will need to do something, and we need to rethink how we are going to do that on those different levels at the same time.”
Deterrence today is no longer a matter of military capability alone. It depends on speed, shared situational awareness, and close cooperation between armed forces, civilian authorities, and industry. Digital transformation is a key enabler here, but only if technology, doctrine, and people evolve together.
Besides a keynote joined a panel discussion on ‘Decoupling Command and Control: Building Modular, Sovereign AI for Coalition Operation.
More information: https://www.afcea.org/signal-media/international/nato-seeks-new-equilibrium-deterrence
Images: Robin Wolf and AFCEA International
