One Decision

Better late than never? As Nato members scramble to organize support and aid for Ukraine, Nato command has pledged to beef up the Eastern Flank - the Alliance's frontier against Russia. With the potential addition of Sweden and Finland - which may yet be stymied by Turkey - Nato's border with Russia looks set to double. For the countries on the edge, of what's known as the 'Eastern Flank', Nato needs to do more than just send more troops and hardware. Our team at the Nato summit in Madrid spoke to a number of leaders, ministers and representatives from across these nations. These are their views.

Latvia, along with its fellow Baltic nations Estonia and Lithuania, has long raised the alarm on Russia’s expansionism. This week in Madrid, NATO heard its call. One Decision gets an exclusive interview with the President of Latvia Egils Levits, who tells us that Russia tends to respond to weakness - not strength. 

This week, Julia Macfarlane is in Madrid for the historic NATO summit as it’s considered to be the most important gathering of the alliance in a generation. One Decision secured exclusive interviews with world leaders, foreign ministers, ambassadors to discuss NATO’s new strategic concept, the reclassification of Russia as the greatest threat to the Euro-Atlantic area, and also the need for member states to invest in Defense as war returns to Europe once again. Together with her co-host Sir Richard Dearlove, former chief of Mi6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, they break down the biggest decisions coming out of Madrid.

Vladimir Putin's efforts to prevent NATO’s expansion suffered a dramatic setback this week as Finland and Sweden were formally invited to join the seventy-three-year-old alliance. Finland's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pekka Haavisto, joins host Julia MacFarlane on this special edition of One Decision recorded at this week's historic NATO Summit to discuss why the Nordic country decided to abandon its decades old policy of neutrality. 

At the start of what’s being billed as the most important Nato gathering in a generation, One Decision hosts a panel with former Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Director of Chatham House Robin Niblett, and The Times Defense Editor Larisa Brown. 

In this bonus episode before the NATO Summit Julia Macfarlane & Sir Richard Dearlove consider Bob Gates’s opinion that America is the biggest national security threat to itself.

Former Defense Secretary and Director of the CIA, Dr. Robert Gates, sits down exclusively with One Decision and shares his prediction on how Beijing is likely to apply the lessons Russia learned in Ukraine. Gates began his years as an expert on the Soviet Union, and led the Agency after the fall of the USSR. With host Sir Richard Dearlove, former Chief of MI6 and host Julia Macfarlane, Gates weighs in on the current conflict, with a warning for the west. While Macfarlane pushes both Gates and Dearlove on whether Iraq can be considered a success, and the consequences of our failure to secure the peace in Afghanistan. 

India is finding itself pulled in different directions - by Russia, one of its major trading partners. By the west, working to isolate Russia. All while navigating a tricky relationship with China, which has competing interests in the region.  Ambassador Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary of India, discusses India’s options with One Decision's Julia Macfarlane who later gets the unfiltered analysis from host and former Chief of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove. 

The blockading of the Ukrainian port city of Odessa is having disastrous consequences, not just on Ukraine. Millions of people around the world live in countries that are overwhelmingly reliant on Ukrainian exports. The country, known as the breadbasket of Europe, ships cereals, grain and fertilizer around the world - as does Russia. The disruption of these goods flowing out of the region is impacting places in the African continent which are already struggling due to drought and failed crop harvests. One man can possibly put a stop to this - Vladimir Putin. We speak to two journalists covering Europe and global population and demographics - Maria Tadeo of Bloomberg and Stephanie Hegarty of the BBC. And of course with the smart takes of former Chief of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove. 

Ukraine's under an unprecedented assault, on the ground, but also online. We spoke to the man in charge of protecting Ukraine's digital infrastructure, Victor Zhora, about how the country continues to fight Russian troops on the battlefield, and Russian hackers in cyberspace. Guest host Helena Humphrey speaks with Sir Richard Dearlove, who himself revealed on One Decision that he has been the subject of a personal targeted cyber-attack by the Russians, and his analysis on where Russian cyber warriors may next take aim.