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Another Russian invasion of Ukraine? A Scenario
In the summer of 2020, Russian forces entered Dnipropetrovsk International Airport (Ukraine’s fourth largest city), blockaded the M34 motorway that links Dnipropetro- vsk to Kiev and seized railway lines in the region. At the same time, Russia deployed the Admiral Grigorovich, Ladnyy and Smetlivyy frigates and the Azov and Caesar Kunikov landing ships in the Sea of Azov, sent…
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Promoting European Defence Cooperation and the Promise of Financial Incentives
The European Union (EU) has never directly funded defence research or military capability development before; so the fact that EU financial support for both defence research and joint capability development is now possible following the release of the European Defence Action Plan (EDAP) is curious and interesting. The fact that…
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Defence in Detail
Abstract The following pages bring together data on defence spending from three different sources: the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Data for 2016 from the EDA were not available at time of publication. IISS and SIPRI figures dis-…
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The CARD on the EU Defence Table
In the 14 November 2016 Council conclusions, member states recognised that there was a need to ‘deepen defence cooperation and ensure more optimal use, including coherence, of defence spending plans’. Although the European Defence Agency (EDA) has been working towards these objectives since 2004, a more ‘structured way to deliver…
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Patriotism, Preferences and Serendipity: Understanding the Adoption of the Defence Transfers Directive
The 2009 adoption of the EU directive on intra-Community transfers of defence equipment (‘ICT directive’) (2009/43/EC) aims to harmonize defence transfer licencing in the EU. The directive is part of a ‘defence package’ – along with a directive on defence procurement (2009/81/EC) – that is geared to liberalizing and regulating…
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European Defence: The Year Ahead
After several months of intense work, the European Union ended 2016 having agreed to a number of fresh initiatives designed to articulate (and act on) a new level of ambition for security and defence. Under the overall direction laid down by the EU Global Strategy (EUGS), a specific plan on…
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Understanding EU Foreign Policy: Theory
The institutional context in which the European Union conducts its external action – starting with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) – is complex, sometimes unclear, and highly fragmented. Moreover, the large number of players and formats for shaping, making and…
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The EU, NATO and the European Defence Market: Do Institutional Responses to Defence Globalisation Matter?
The European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are both institutions through which European states can engage in European defence–industrial cooperation. Each organisation embodies a unique set of institutional tools through which to manage issues such as the high and rising costs of defence procurement, technological innovation, defence…
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EU Defence Research in Development
On the 14 November 2016 EU member states welcomed the presentation of the Implementation Plan on Security and Defence (SDIP) by the High Representative/Vice-President. The plan serves as a follow-up to the EU Global Strategy (EUGS) with a specific focus on security and defence, but, more than this, the SDIP…
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Making Europe and Europeans Safer
One of the criticisms associated with plans for closer European defence cooperation is that there are no new ideas around. The ‘EU Battlegroups’, ‘Permanent Structured Cooperation’, even the idea for an ‘EU Operational Headquarters’ or a ‘Defence Semester’ are seen as old and sometimes unwieldly initiatives, reminiscent of debates that…
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The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Defence, Industry and Strategy
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, if ratified by all parties, is likely to have ramifications for the global defence market and the US’ economic and political strategy towards the Asia-Pacific region. Although the TPP excludes a number of defence-related issues such as defence procurement, the TPP’s provisions on technology transfers and intellectual…
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After the EU Global Strategy: Security and Defence – Consulting the Experts
Following the publication of the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) in June, attention has now turned to how the strategy can concretely be implemented. A Security and Defence Implementation Plan (SDIP) will focus on the EU’s ability – primarily through the CSDP – to respond to…
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After the EU Global Strategy: Connecting the Dots
The EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS) is quite candid about the challenges facing European defence and it understandably calls for defence cooperation to become the norm rather than the exception. The new strategy provides Europe with a realistic analysis of the present challenges and it lays…
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The European Union
Covering the main political organs of the UN, important regional and security organizations, international judicial institutions and the regional human rights protection systems, An Institutional Approach to the Responsibility to Protect examines the roles and responsibilities of the international community regarding the responsibility to protect. It also proposes improvements to…
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A Revolution Too Far? US Defence Innovation, Europe and NATO’s Military-Technological Gap
The United States is launching another defence innovation initiative to offset the growing military-technological might of countries such as China, Russia and Iran. However, by utilising emerging technologies from the commercial sector to achieve greater military power the US may further open up the technology gap within NATO. This raises…
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A ‘Game Changer’? The Preparatory Action on Defence Research
The Preparatory Action for Common Security and Defence Policy‐related research is currently under preparation, and it will serve as a test‐bed to prove the relevance of defence‐related research at the European Union‐level. The Preparatory Action could potentially see between €75 ‐ €100 million invested in defence‐specific research over a three‐year…
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Modernising NATO’s Defence Infrastructure with EU Funds
A quietly important element of NATO’s Readiness Action Plan (RAP), agreed at the 2014 Wales Summit, is the Alliance’s need ‘to reinforce its eastern Allies through preparation of national infrastructure, such as airfields and ports’. Put simply, without the necessary infrastructure, including transportation networks and hubs, and energy supply lines,…
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Europe and the Pentagon’s Third Offset Strategy
Faced with the prospect of its adversaries mitigating its long-held superiority in sophisticated weapons systems, the US announced in 2014 that it was about to embark on a ‘third offset strategy’ in order to maintain its military-technology edge. In its quest to harness new technologies and operational concepts however, the…
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The Responsibility to Protect and the Third Pillar: Legitimacy and Operationalization
As the RtoP moves from norm to operationalization, greater analysis of action to halt crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide and ethnic cleansing is needed. This uncovers opportunities and challenges associated with third pillar interventions by looking at legal, economic, political, military and alternative interventions in third-countries. Palgrave, 2015 Buy…
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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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Supporting European Security and Defence with Existing EU Measures and Procedures
Focusing on the support of non-CSDP policies for CSDP measures, both in the field of crisis management and defence, this study submits that CSDP cannot effectively contribute to EU external action by itself, but only in coherence with other EU policies and instruments. The study focuses on nine different issue…
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European Defence-Industrial Cooperation: From Keynes to Clausewitz
The European Union is still far from having a consolidated defence market but the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base (EDTIB) has emerged as a policy framework through which to liberalize and regulate defence markets, protect and sustain jobs and to improve the interoperability of Europe’s armed forces; all at…
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‘Our Man in Brussels’. The UK and the EEAS: Ambivalence and Influence
Based on extensive empirical work by a cross-European group of researchers, this book assesses the impact of the creation of the European External Action Service (EEAS) on the national foreign policy-making processes and institutions of the EU member states. As such, the contributions cover both the involvement of the national…
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The Common Security and Defence Policy: National Perspectives
When one looks at the present state of the CSDP, “one cannot help but look on with disenchantment”, states Pierre Vimont in his foreword to this collective Egmont Paper, edited by Daniel Fiott. And yet: from the essays assembled here, one cannot but conclude that European defence is not only indispensable,…
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The Diplomatic Role of the European Parliament’s Parliamentary Groups
The political groups of the European Parliament (EP) play a diplomatic role in terms of the EP’s legislative powers, their rhetorical role in European Union (EU) foreign policy, and through direct diplomatic action in third countries. It is therefore surprising to observe that the parliamentary diplomacy of the political groups…
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The European Commission and the European Defence Agency: A Case of Rivalry?
This article analyzes relations between the European Commission and the European Defence Agency (EDA) as they relate to European defence-industrial co-operation. To undertake the analysis, the article departs from a strictly intergovernmental-supranational study of institutional relations by building upon the concept of ‘mandate overlap’. Additionally, the focus is on the…
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Autonomy without Autarky: An EU ‘Roadmap’ for Security of Supply
The disruption of the defence supply chain and the inability to replace or reproduce equipment: a nightmarish prospect for any military planner. To allay such fears, states have, whenever possible, sought to lower dependence on third-country suppliers by favouring national industry. Yet complete autarky is impossible to achieve in today’s…
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Kissinger on World Order
Kissinger’s first book was essentially a study of the corrupting effect of revolution on world – or, more specifically, European – order. Kissinger’s (thinly masked) parallel between Napoleon and Hitler made the point that revolutionary powers – defined as those states that seek to overturn the established global order –…
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The Three Effects of Dual-Use: Firms, Capabilities and Governance
It is easy to overlook the fact that many of the products and technologies we use on a daily basis – and now take for granted – have their origins in the defence sector. GPS navigation units, the internet, touch screens, digital cameras, and even microwaves, were all, in one…
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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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Daniel Fiott 