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The ‘TTIP-ing Point’: How the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Could Impact European Defence
The European Union and the United States are on the verge of agreeing to a transatlantic free trade agreement. The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is aimed at boosting EU and US economic growth, but the negotiating partners have not excluded the defence sector from negotiations. Europe is at a tipping point regarding the rationale for its defence-industrial integration efforts. Any TTIP extending to the defence sector will raise questions about the nature of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base, and, crucially, how it impacts the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and the Common Security and Defence Policy.
The International Spectator, Vol. 48, No. 3
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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 the latest Communication.
Egmont Institute, 2013, No. 49
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Realist Thought and Humanitarian Intervention
This article seeks to test the assumption that realism is completely hostile to the ethical and political notions of humanitarian intervention. The popular understanding of realism states that the national interest and international order will always trump the moral impulse to assist those suffering gross human-rights abuses at the hands of their government. The article makes the argument that this understanding of realism emerged from a particular period of history and under the pens of specific individuals reacting to these conditions. By affording a much deeper historical scope to the term ‘realism’, this article shows how realism cannot be damned uniformly by those writing and thinking about humanitarian intervention in the present period, and the role it holds in contemporary debates on humanitarian intervention.
The International History Review, 2013, Vol. 35, No. 4
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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 in theatres of action on civil-military tasks ranging from peacekeeping to border patrol. While CSDP has emerged as an important component of EU foreign policy, however, it is not just about mission deployment because it has also encouraged cooperation between member states on military capability development and defence-industrial programmes (Fiott, 2012; Fiott 2013). While the CSDP does not account for all military policy in the EU – the individual member states (specifically France and the United Kingdom) have their own policies and there is also NATO – it is a test-bed for the member states’ military cooperation. When one looks at the Policy through the prism of IR theory some interesting points also arise.
e-International Relations, 2013
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Europe and the Rest of the World
There were a number of leitmotifs by which to identify the European Union’s activities in 2012. The first of these was the eurozone crisis. A second theme was the change (or not) of key personnel: the election of François Hollande in France, the re-election of American President Barack Obama in October, the generational change of leadership in China and the return of Vladimir Putin as Russian president. Third was the United States’ ‘pivot’ away from two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan towards the Pacific region. The fourth leitmotif related to the deepened crises in the Sahel, North Africa and the Middle East. Finally, there were the activities of the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the development of the High Representative/Vice-President (HR/VP) position held by Baroness Catherine Ashton. Against this background, the EU in 2012 displayed an observable if uneven consolidation of its international identity, while the EEAS itself produced a range of muted but generally organized responses,
Journal of Common Market Studies, 2013, Vol. 51, No. S1
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Improving CSDP Planning and Capability Development: Could there be a ‘Frontex Formula’?
The newly agreed operational rules for Frontex allows the Agency to, among other things, buy or lease its own equipment for missions and/or to do so in co-ownership with the Member States and to request national seconded staff for its operations. The new rules are a major step forward in further developing Frontex’s resources. Yet this progress has not been matched, despite the Lisbon treaty’s protocol on Permanent Structured Cooperation, and in light of the defence budget cuts being made in many European Union (EU) Member States, when it comes to the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This article asks why, given that each policy area is ultimately aimed at the defence and security of the EU, are the innovations that have been agreed for Frontex not equally applicable to CSDP? Why have Member States increased cooperation under Frontex without equivalent or similar progress under the CSDP? This article aims to shed light on the differences and similarities of the two policy domains in order to see if a ‘Frontex formula’ could be applicable to the CSDP.
European Foreign Affairs Review, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 1
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The Sahel Crisis: Where do European and African Perspectives Meet?
The crisis in Mali has brought the Sahel to the centre of international attention. This fragile region not only suffers from longstanding development challenges, but also from an acute security vacuum that has triggered military intervention. Many questions have arisen as a consequence of the crisis. Has the European Union the ability to cope with such a complex and dynamically evolving security environment? How have divergent views on the political roadmap to be adopted, and the lack of resources at the African level, impacted the crisis response? Can the different players involved agree on what are the most pertinent needs and challenges to be addressed? Are they ready for long-term engagement? Can regional organisations effectively collaborate and are they able to successfully integrate different agendas? Following a conference organised by the Institute for European Studies, the Egmont Institute and the Observatoire de l’Afrique on these questions this Policy Brief builds on the findings of the conference and provides an analytical overview of the regional crisis by focusing on the main challenges facing the Sahel, the local and regional dynamics at play and the military and security response.
Egmont Institute, 2013
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Safeguarding the EDTIB: the Case for Supervising non-EU FDI in the Defence Sector
It is time for the EU member states to start collectively supervising non-EU FDI in Europe’s defence industries and infrastructures. This should be a prudent element of the nascent EDTIB and a way to maintain European security by encouraging greater coordination between the national supervisory frameworks.
Egmont Institute, 2012, No. 41
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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, all too often treating the EU as a unitary actor and overlooking the continued importance of national strategic interests in the formulation and conduct of EU foreign policy; and finally, and related to these two failings, they have a fixation with strategic objectives rather than focusing on the strategic methodology – both in a material and intellectual sense – that is to be used to pursue such objectives. Thinking about a European Global Strategy (EGS) must not commit the same errors.
Contribution to “Stocktaking of EU Strategising”, 2021
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How Europeanised has Maltese Foreign Policy Become?
This essay focuses on the degree to which Maltese foreign policy has become Europeanized because of its membership in the European Union. The author focuses on three trends resulting from the Europeanization process: first, the ways in which Malta’s national policies and political structures have become altered to meet the demands of EU membership; second, the manner in which Malta projects its own interests at the EU level; and third, the degree to which Maltese national identity has transformed since becoming an EU member state in 2004. The author then provides a brief overview of the particular national characteristics of Maltese politics.
Mediterranean Quarterly, 2010, Vol. 21, No. 3
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Daniel Fiott 