Can Europe survive without US defence? Surprisingly, the Baltic sea nations are showing the way | Elisabeth Braw

Joint patrols are being mounted to protect undersea cables from Russian sabotage: localised cooperation is our best hope for now

• Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council thinktank

When European countries in the Baltic Sea region joined Nato for protection against Russia, they were not anticipating their most powerful Nato ally would be the one threatening to seize territory from them. The shock of the Greenland crisis may have faded from the headlines, but Donald Trump's US has also suggested it may decide not to defend Europe. And Russia continues to be a nuisance in the Baltic Sea.

Luckily, the vulnerable Baltic nations have launched an impressive string of initiatives to keep their mini-ocean safe. As the US sheds responsibility for Europe's defence, these efforts could provide a model for the future of Nato itself.

Elisabeth Braw is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council thinktank. She is the author of Goodbye, Globalization: The Return of a Divided World and The Defender's Dilemma: Identifying and Deterring Gray-Zone Aggression