Tag: European Union
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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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Yearbook of European Security, 2021
Abstract The 2021 Yearbook of European Security provides an overview of events in 2020 that were significant for European security and it charts major developments in the EU’s external action and security and defence policy. The 2021 Yearbook of European Security contains region- and issue-specific sections, timelines of key events,…
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What Scope for EU-US Defence Industrial Cooperation in the 2020s?
The election of Joseph Biden as President of the United States has led to talk of a reset in the transatlantic relationship. This is the dawn of a new era where the US are more involved in NATO, the Europeans are more involved in their security with projects such as…
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European Defence and the Demands of Strategic Autonomy
Fundamental changes in the international system are calling into question the EU’s understanding of itself as a security and defence actor. Challenges such as the rise of China, Russia’s hybrid tactics, questions about the long-term durability of the transatlantic relationship, the risk that terrorist groups may seek to fill strategic…
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The EU’s Presence and Strategy in the Indo-Pacific
Throughout 2021, it was clear to all external actors that the EU was set to produce a strategy for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. After initial Council of the EU Conclusions on 19 April 2021 that set out the main parameters for EU engagement, the European Commission and High Representative set about refining…
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Naval Gazing: The Strategic Compass and the EU’s Maritime Presence
Abstract The EU and its member states will find it increasingly difficult to sustain the rules-based order and the Union’s own economic prosperity without a sizeable and consist- ent investment in maritime power. The politics of the EU’s approach to maritime security is conditioned by questions of geographical priorities and…
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Securing the Heavens: How can Space Support the EU’s Strategic Compass?
Abstract Despite political and industrial divergences between EU member states, space will play an indispensable role in the Strategic Compass. Space is a strategic enabler that can enrich the EU’s approach to crisis management, resilience, capabilities and partnerships, and the Compass is an opportunity to upgrade the status of space…
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The EU’s Strategic Compass for Security and Defence: What Type of Ambition is the Needle Pointing to?
Abstract For the past twenty years, the EU has deployed numerous missions and operations to different parts of the world and it has agreed on a suite of new initiatives to boost capability development, synchronise defence investment plans and enhance operational capacity. However, there is still a fundamental question facing…
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European Defence, Investment and the Covid-19 Pandemic
Introduction “Please answer the question!” proclaimed newly elected Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Klarissa de Jong. Sitting in an almost empty parliamentary committee room, one of the assembled officials from the Euro- pean Commission retorted: “any decision to invest in capability development through the European Defence Fund is taken by national capitals.…
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Virtual Congo: Or the Limits of Technological Superiority
Introduction “Damn it!” Hidden behind an armoured vehicle, and looking down at the private’s blood-soaked body, Corporal Kohler began to breathe heavily as bullets whistled past his head. It was the sixth man he had lost this week. As he looked at the court house located in the Poto Poto neighbourhood, he could…
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Going viral? EU defence and the response to COVID-19
By now, we are familiar with the serious risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Militaries across Europe have been praised for their role in delivering medical supplies, transporting patients, testing citizens and building makeshift hospitals. Notwithstanding the current second and possible future waves of the virus, however, attention is turning…
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Sovereignty over Supply? The EU’s Ability to Manage Critical Dependences while Engaging with the World
Abstract Fears about the EU’s trade, resource and technology dependences have only grown since the outbreak of the pandemic, even though US-China trade disputes and the rolling out of 5G have played a significant role, too. Some analysts have pointed to the beginning of a ‘decoupling’ of certain supply chains…
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The European Space Sector as an Enabler of EU Strategic Autonomy
Today, the European Union can boast a degree of strategic autonomy in space. Projects such as Galileo have not only enhanced the EU’s economy, but they may confer on the Union the ability to amplify its Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy. While the EU…
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Yearbook of European Security 2020
Abstract The 2020 Yearbook of European Security provides an overview of events in 2019 that were significant for European security and it charts major developments in the EU’s external action and security and defence policy. The 2020 Yearbook of European Security contains region- and issue-specific sections, content-centric timelines, key EU…
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The EU’s Strategic Compass and Its Four Baskets: Capability Development
The Strategic Compass promises to give the EU greater clarity over the strategic direction of CSDP and, potentially, EU security and defense more broadly. Which direction is the EU headed? What do North, South, East, and West mean in the context of CSDP? Who is carrying the Compass, and who…
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Uncharted Territory? Towards a Common Threat Analysis and a Strategic Compass for EU security and defence
Words have meaning. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took up her mandate calling for a ‘geopolitical Commission’ and Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP), echoed this by stating that the EU needs to ‘learn the…
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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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Financing Rhetoric? The European Defence Fund and Dual-use Technologies
The European Defence Fund reveals an intriguing aspect of dual-use theory and practice, namely, that the European Commission has committed to maintaining a specific ‘defence’ focus for the Fund in a sector that is increasingly marked by dual-use technologies and systems. This chapter analyses how the European Commission defines ‘defence’…
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EU-Japan Cooperation on Defence Capabilities: Possibilities?
European countries and Japan both possess advanced defence technologies and they can bring to bear a range of civilian or dual-use technologies for defence procurement and defence research. At the same time, both players recognise that it is increasingly difficult for individual countries to manage defence equipment projects without cooperation.…
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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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CSDP in 2020: The EU’s Legacy and Ambition in Security and Defence
The past 20 years of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) have taught us more about the EU as an international actor. While the Union has not entirely lived up to the ambitions set down by European ministers at the Helsinki European Council in December 1999, the EU has developed…
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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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Digitalising Defence: Protecting Europe in the Age of Quantum Computing and the Cloud
Abstract Digital technologies can vastly improve the operational readiness, effectiveness and technological sovereignty of Europe’s armed forces. For defence to benefit from digitalisation, both the greater interoperability of digital technologies and financial investment is required. The Multi-annual Financial Framework is a test for how serious EU member states are about the digital agenda but low…
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A Future Scenario for a More Strategic EU Defence
Abstract As the journalist from Euronews asked what it was like to be held hostage by jihadists for four months since June 2024, the three student backpackers could not hold back the tears. Europeans Paulus Klimitz and Katriona Wicedz and the American John O’Connor were visibly emotional as the EU Ambassador to…
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Strategic Investment: Making Geopolitical Sense of the EU’s Defence-Industrial Policy
Abstract This Chaillot Paper focuses on new EU initiatives in the defence domain – in particular the creation of the European Defence Fund – and on the Union’s evolving role and engagement in this sector. The paper seeks to address three specific questions: (i) how can economic and political factors be balanced…
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Stress Tests: An Insight into Crisis Scenarios, Simulations and Exercises
Abstract Crisis simulations and exercises are an effective way of broadening the minds of decision-makers, forecasting the future, identifying capability gaps, pin-pointing the weaknesses and strengths in the crisis response architecture and developing crisis response networks. The EU increasingly makes use of crisis scenarios. However, simulations and exercises can only add…
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EU – NATO Relations: Defence Industry, Industrial Cooperation and Military Mobility
Abstract Issues pertaining to the defence industrial sector represent a perennial tension in EU- NATO relations. The tension exists both between the two organisations and the con- stituent members of each body. In short, the possibilities for and limits to EU-NATO cooperation on defence-industrial matters are conditioned by considerations of…
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Yearbook of European Security 2019
Abstract The 2019 Yearbook of European Security provides an overview of events in 2018 that were significant for European security and charts major developments in the EU’s external action and security and defence policy. With a new data-rich look, the 2019 Yearbook of European Security contains many novel features including…
Daniel Fiott 