TIME World latvia Latvia and U.S. Play War Games as Tensions with Russia Grow Soldiers from the Latvian army participate in the Silver Arrow NATO military exercise in Adazi, Latvia, Oct. 5, 2014. Ints KalninsReuters NATO members are beefing up their forces in eastern Europe, as Russia dials up its propaganda warfare and military intimidation <\/p>\n
Over the sandbanks and marshes of northern Latvia, battle cries rang out late last month as U.S. and Latvian troops stormed a mock-up urban street, a training exercise one officer described as a Stalingrad-type scenario for soldiers more used to peace-keeping or fighting rural insurgents. After an 80,000 anti-tank missile and a volley of mortar and artillery fire launch the drills, a U.S. Black Hawk transports Latvian soldiers into the war games scenario, where they go house-to-house searching for a high-value target. <\/p>\n
Not far away in the Latvian capital of Riga, officials were getting to work in the newly-inaugurated NATO Strategic Communications Center of Excellence, a hub aimed at countering information warfare by enemies of the 28-member military alliance. <\/p>\n
The endeavors are at opposite ends of the tactical spectrum, but reflect the challenges presented by the new hybrid warfare which analysts say is the Kremlins modus operandi under President Vladimir Putin. While Russian troops openly went into Crimea this year to annex it from Ukraine, some of Russias neighbors are grappling with more subtle meddling and mind games. <\/p>\n
NATO must be flexible, Latvian Defense Minister Raimonds Vejonis tells TIME, citing economic coercion, propaganda warfare and military intimidation along Russias Baltic borders as some of the new threats to emerge in the past year. <\/p>\n
During the last 65 years after the Second World War it was calm and silent in Europe now the situation has changed this year due to Russian activities in Ukraine. We must be ready to adapt to the new situation, and ready to react to new geopolitical challenges in Europe. <\/p>\n
NATO members are beefing up their forces in eastern Europe as a result. Earlier this year 600 U.S. troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade deployed to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia and this week, U.S. tanks returned to Latvian soil for the first time since the Second World War. Joint military exercises have increased in size and frequency. At a NATO summit last month, leaders pledged increased funding for cyber and information warfare units, while also announcing the formation of a Rapid Reaction Force which could deploy to allied nations within days. <\/p>\n
Analysts say this is a good start, but there is concern that NATO needs to send a stronger signal that any Russian military intervention not just a overt invasion would provoke Article Five, by which an attack on one member demands reaction from all 28. <\/p>\n
This is time for NATO to be crystal clear, says Matthew Bryza, a former US diplomat now working for the Estonia-based International Center for Defense Studies. If you use military force in the Baltic states, there will be consequences, there will be war. It needs to be that clear. <\/p>\n
A return to the conventional warfare and military muscle-flexing of the past appears to be the easy part. The generation of military minds overseeing NATOs transformation is steeped in Cold War history. <\/p>\n
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