Center for Maritime Security – Although UNCLOS was not adequately fabricated for irregular activities, NATO’s ability to ultimately address hybrid threat vectors solely relies on its political willingness. If adversaries suspect fissures within the alliance’s force structure, hybrid activities will escalate with grievous repercussions. Although NATO, particularly European member states, operates within a rules-based international order, allied governments must remain cognizant that adversarial states, most notably Russia, are increasingly willing to employ coercive and asymmetric maritime measures for strategic and geopolitical gain, despite being signatories to UNCLOS. Simultaneously, the United States must recognize that maintaining maritime order and alliance credibility requires operating in tandem with its European counterparts as a cohesive and perceivable hegemonic bloc, as the durability of U.S. strategic influence and the preservation of the state system’s rules-based order remain inherently connected to allied interoperability and joint deterrence.