Blue Center convenes leaders at Munich Security Conference to address grey-zone challenges

The Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, in partnership with NATO’s Allied Special Operations Forces Command (SOFCOM), convened senior defense and intelligence leaders for a discussion on countering Russian grey zone activity during a side event at the 2026 Munich Security Conference (MSC).

The private, off-the-record session, titled “Eminence in the Grey Zone: Countering Russian Activity Below the Threshold of War,” brought together MSC attendees from across the U.S. and Europe to discuss how to effectively respond to Russian activities in the ambiguous space between peace and war  — and specifically what role military special operations forces might have to play in that effort.

Since its founding in 1963, the MSC has served as the premier forum for transatlantic security dialogue. While the speeches from top-level national leaders that occur on the “main stage” receive the most attention from the global media, there are hundreds of other “side events” that occur in Munich over the course of the weekend, as well as bilateral meetings between participants from government, industry, and academia.

Last year, the Blue Center formed an academic partnership with the conference, providing a platform for Yale academics to engage directly with policymakers and shape discussions based on their research and expertise. This year, the Yale delegation at the conference included Jim Levinsohn, the Dean of the Jackson School; Phil Kaplan, the executive director of the Blue Center; and General (Retired) Timothy Haugh, a Blue Senior Fellow and the former director of the U.S. National Security Agency.

NATO’s SOFCOM contributed to the session by outlining its role in countering hybrid threats and soliciting feedback on how special operations capabilities might better integrate into broader NATO and national deterrence efforts. Participants included intelligence and cyber security leaders from NATO nations, a senior official from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX), and members of the broader think tank and policy communities.

“The grey zone represents a significant strategic challenge,” Kaplan noted following the event. “We’re past the point of merely recognizing or typologizing the different sorts of Russian activities that occur in that space. The conversation now is about how European and western nations can concretely act to counter it. How can we make hybrid activity costly for Russia?”

The Blue Center’s partnership with SOFCOM and a broader network of think tank and policy institutions reflects a shared commitment to generating practical approaches to contemporary security challenges. “Partnership between governments, international organizations, NGOs, and the right academic institutions is critical to countering the hybrid threats to Europe and its Transatlantic partners,” said Virginia McCabe, strategic communications director at SOFCOM. “Only together can we establish a cohesive view of the threats to our nations, increase our resilience, and devise appropriate responses,” she noted.

The Blue Center’s partnerships with both the MSC and SOFCOM are a reflection of its mission to support the interdisciplinary study of security and statecraft by bringing together leading scholars and practitioners. Since launching in 2024, the center has hired several senior fellows to lecture at Yale and conduct research on various security-related topics. It has also funded research initiatives for Yale faculty working on particular projects related to security or statecraft.