NATO has made a lot progress improving its defense and deterrence against Russia since 2014, "but it was more talk than action when it came to addressing problems in the south," Alexander Vershbow, a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and coauthor of the report, said during its presentation last month.
"This theme figured prominently in my farewell address to the North Atlantic Council three years ago, and unfortunately the situation hasn't changed all that much since then," added Vershbow, who was deputy secretary general of NATO and US ambassador to Russia.
According to the report, "many of the conventional defense and deterrence challenges associated with NATO's east are now reemerging in the south," including enhanced Russian anti-access/area-denial capabilities, provocative actions in the Black Sea, and hybrid activity on the ground.
Though NATO has taken steps to remedy its shortcomings in the Mediterranean — such as setting up a "hub of the south" at Joint Forces Command in Naples, Italy — establishing a maritime-focused enhanced southern presence there could be a way to counter Russia and sharing the burden of doing so among members, Vershbow said.
"Russia is back with a vengeance in the eastern Mediterranean and in the Black Sea," which adds a geopolitical dimension to NATO's need to project stability and bolster defense and deterrence, Vershbow added.
"The lack of an effective southern strategy could put alliance solidarity at risk if the publics in the southern NATO countries see the alliance as failing to address what they consider to be their priority concerns," Vershbow said. "It could undermine their willingness to share the burdens of collective defense against Russia, and everybody loses in that scenario."