Category: Commentary
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Taking the Pulse: Can European Defense Survive the Death of FCAS?
Europe’s next-generation fighter plane has not even taken off, and it looks as though it will be grounded indefinitely. The drama surrounding FCAS does not bode well for Franco-German defense industrial cooperation. Germany has long sought to use the FCAS project to develop its own national aeronautics industry and skills…
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Europe’s Dual Challenge in the Trump Era
In the absence of the US security guarantee, Europe will have to rearm while also remaining united. The good news is that the Europeans are capable of achieving both—as long as they truly want to. When faced with the second Trump presidency, Europe may be experiencing all five stages of…
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The European Defence Commissioner is Here
By introducing a defence commissioner, Ursula von der Leyen’s second European Commission makes clear that Europe’s security is an urgent priority. Defence industrial policy will, by necessity, be a key focus. IP Quarterly, 2024 Read Image credit: All rights reserved Copyright owner © John Thys/Pool via REUTERS
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Une stratégie industrielle de défense pour l’UE : quelles perspectives ?
In this interview, I speak with Joseph Herontin for DSI Magazine about the European Defence Industrial Strategy. Buy the magazine
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Military-Technological Cooperation Across the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific
The “AUKUS” agreement between Australia, United Kingdom and United States has emerged as the paragon of military-technological cooperation across the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions. There are considerable challenges to implementation. However, it is important that the AUKUS program be a success because it is a daring and novel approach to…
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Europe’s Geopolitical Coming of Age Requires Greater Defense Efforts
Having already experienced what life is like under a Donald Trump US presidency, the Europeans presently seem rather blasé about what a potential second Trump administration could entail for the European Union and NATO. For all his (very real) sins, Trump gave voice to the long-standing tensions at the heart…
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Analyzing the Outcomes of the 2023 NATO Summit
The NATO Summit in Vilnius on 11-12 July 2023 came at a testing time for the alliance. With the Ukrainian offensive, Russia’s war on Ukraine has entered a delicate phase. NATO allies and EU member states are turning to questions about what the post-war settlement might look like, and there…
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The Weight of Expectations: The EU and the Protection of Europe
One of the consequences of the war on Ukraine has been a greater realisation that the defence industry matters to the European Union (EU). This may seem like an odd statement given that the Union started to stimulate its defence industry after the EU Global Strategy with frame- works and tools such as the…
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Agenda Exterior: escenarios para una guerra
Lo único que sabemos con certeza es que la guerra terminará algún día. Hasta que llegue ese día, el pueblo ucraniano seguirá luchando por su patria con el apoyo de la UE, la OTAN y sus socios. Uno de los principales aspectos psicológicos de la guerra ha sido sacudir a…
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Relative Dominance: Russian Naval Power in the Black Sea
Russia is struggling in its war on Ukraine. Kyiv’s military advances have allowed the country to seize back more of its territory, vindicating Western efforts to deliver military equipment and weapons to Kyiv to stem Russian advances and to enable Ukrainian forces to retake territory Russia had annexed. In response,…
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L’Europe doit investir davantage dans la défense collective
Depuis le début de la guerre en Ukraine , la plupart des pays de l’Union européenne ont annoncé l’intention d’augmenter, dans les années à venir, leurs dépenses militaires d’environ 200 milliards d’euros. De telles hausses budgétaires représentent à la fois une opportunité et un défi pour l’UE. Les Echos, 2022 Read more
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Collective Defence Investment: Europe Must do More and at a Faster Pace
If Europeans really intend to build a common defence industry that will allow them to face the new challenges ahead and become a credible player in the international security arena, they must do and spend more together, and they must do it now, a group of ten defence experts write.…
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The Strategic Compass: A New Era for EU Defence?
In the midst of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the EU published its long-awaited securityand defence strategy called the “Strategic Compass”. This document is the first of its kind for the EU, and it can be likened to an EU “white book” on defence. The Strategic Compass is certainly the document…
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Agenda Exterior: OTAN y autonomía estratégica europea
La vuelta a la defensa colectiva en Europa ha provocado, como era de esperar, una revitalización de la alianza de la OTAN. No solo Finlandia y Suecia están llamando a la puerta de la OTAN, sino que la huella militar de la alianza en el este de Europa ha aumentado…
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To face the Russian Threat, Europeans Need to Spend Together – not Side by Side
If European states are to make good on their promises to protect their interests and their continent, they will need to stand side by side, but invest together, write a group of scientific advisers to the Armament Industry European Research Group (ARES). Euractiv, 2022 Read more
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The Day After: the EU’s Strategic Compass and the Protection of Europe
The EU has spent the best part of 20 months working on its ‘Strategic Compass’ for security and defence, yet the war in Ukraine and the threat environment around Europe pose serious questions. If the Compass is to move from just another EU document to credible action, EU member states…
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Der Weg zu einem souveränen Europa
Vor mehr als vier Jahren hielt der französische Präsident Emmanuel Macron an der Pariser Sorbonne eine Rede mit dem Titel „Initiative für Europa“. Sie führte das Konzept der europäischen Souveränität ein – damals noch ein kühner Vorschlag, heute eine weit verbreitete Vorstellung. 2020 nannte EU-Ratspräsident Charles Michel das Erreichen echter…
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Towards a Strategic Compass for the EU
The European Union has made tangible steps forward in security and defence in recent years. he EU Global Strategy put in place a new strategic rationale for the EU and it stressed the importance for member states to invest in security and defence in order to better respond to a…
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Le canal et l’Union : comment la nouvelle crise de Suez déstabilise la géopolitique de l’espace maritime européen
Depuis quelques jours, un porte-conteneurs géant embourbé dans les sables du canal de Suez bloque 12 % du commerce mondial. Que révèle l’affaire Ever Given de l’espace maritime européen ? Dans cette étude, Daniel Fiott montre qu’il ne faut pas négliger la dimension géostratégique de cet événement. Le Grand Continent, 2021 Read…
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The EU and Crisis Management in the age of Technological Disruption
International organisations are playing catch-up to the rapid development of emerging technologies and greater digitalisation, especially as these new systems and processes are being produced at a seemingly breakneck speed by a range of commercial and government actors. As of today, international actors such as the United Nations and the…
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Europas Verteidigung sollte nicht Opfer des Lockdowns sein
Covid-19 wird die Welt nicht sicherer machen, im Gegenteil. Die EU sollte den Verteidigungssektor bei ihren finanziellen Planungen deshalb besonders berücksichtigen. Ein Gastbeitrag. Frankfurter Allgemeine, 2020 Read more
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The EU must not let the four horsemen of the Apocalypse weaken Europe’s security
The looming economic recovery may take its toll on Europe’s armed forces and civilian experts – they will be expected to do more with less money. This has to be avoided at all costs. Were there not four horsemen of the Apocalypse? Just as the virus was spreading in China,…
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Will European Defence Survive Coronavirus?
The tragedy that is the Coronavirus has already claimed too many lives, but it has also allowed Europe’s public services to shine. Citizens across Europe are rightly applauding the tireless work of medical professionals, police and transport workers. Europe’s armed forces have also been called on to roll back the virus. Whether…
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Small can be beautiful… in defence
How are small states supposed to make sense of all the changes that have taken place in EU security and defence since 2016? It can often feel like EU defence is a subject reserved for the ‘big fish’ like France and Germany, but EU initiatives like Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO)…
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Protecting Europe, Permanently? The Future of EU Defence
One of the first initiatives that emerged from the EU Global Strategy was the formation of a single military planning and conduct capability for the strategic command of some of the EU’s military CSDP operations. The logic is that having a single command structure for operations, as opposed to an…
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Europe’s Strategy Strained as Libya Veers Toward Civil War
Without a lasting deal on a national unity government, militias rallying around the rival factions vying for control of Libya could eventually spark a civil war. The Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) and Tripoli-based General National Congress (GNC) continue to reject a United Nations-brokered, European Union-backed proposal. Any subsequent conflict…
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The European Investment Bank could help meet some of the challenges facing Europe’s struggling defence industry
European countries face significant challenges in funding defence research and development programmes. Among the most important are declining defence budgets, fierce international competition, and the increasingly expensive nature of high-end technologies. Daniel Fiott argues that the European Investment Bank could play a much greater role in Europe’s defence sector and serve as…
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More Competitive, More Efficient? The 2013 European Commission Defence Communication
The European Commission has now released its 2013 Communication on defence-industrial policy. But does the latest set of policy ideas offer European defence-industrial cooperation any new impetus? This Brief argues that while the majority of the Commission’s initiatives are not new, some much needed ideas have made their way into…
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The Common Security and Defence Policy and IR Theory
Since its inception over a decade ago, the European Union’s (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has seen the deployment of over 25 missions to various locations in the EU’s near and wider neighbourhood. Working under an EU banner and policy mechanisms, a number of member states have cooperated…
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How to Avoid the Three Pitfalls of European Strategy
European academics, think‐tankers and policy-makers make three consistent and critical errors when debating strategy: firstly, they do not clearly define what they mean by “strategy” – a problem that has long haunted the field of strategic studies; secondly, and as a result, they tend to speak of European strategic interests,…
Daniel Fiott 