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General Petraeus: There Must be Unity of European Joint Action to Deter Authoritarianism
09.05.25

Defense spending in Europe is currently unprecedented, European countries are joining their efforts, the entire civilized world must ascertain deterrence of authoritarianism.

This was emphasized by General David Petraeus, KSF Security Council Member, Commander of US Central Command (2008-10), Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (2011-12), at the 17 th Annual Kyiv Security Forum “UA: UNITE AGAIN TO DEFEAT THE GLOBAL AGGRESSOR”, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Foundation “Open Ukraine”.

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“Some argue that we are in a new “cold war” toady…. In any case, prior to the said tariffs’ imposition, relationships between the US and China did exist, unlike the Cold War times. And this brings back the question “What did we do wrong?”,” he said.

Commenting links and interconnections across the globe, the General noted: “If we do not want China to continue its revanchist ambitions, it must make sure that Russia fails here, in Ukraine”.

According to Gen. David Petraeus, to deter means to assess correctly enemy’s capabilities and potential, as well as own resources to counter the opponent. “First and foremost, we must think about deterrence,” he added.

Deliberating about deterrence strategies, the General emphasized: “Unity of action should be in place, as it were in the “Cold War” era... The irony is that Putin invaded Ukraine to make Russia great again, when in fact he made NATO great again, because neutral countries - Finland, Sweden - joined the Alliance.”

“Europe is back. And as for defense spending, it is unprecedented now... we see that Europe is bracing its efforts,” the General stressed, pointing out ever increasing roles of Germany, Great Britain, and France.

“We are talking about global interconnectivity because we must ensure global deterrence against the global axis of authoritarianism,” the former CIA Director concluded.

The Kyiv Security Forum, organized by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk “Open Ukraine” foundation, is the main platform in this country to discuss problems of war and peace, national and world security.

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