Tag: Technology
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More Money, More Dependence? Financing EU Defence for Autonomy and Cooperation
Europe is entering an era of unprecedented defence investment, with EU institutions and member states projected to spend nearly €6.8 trillion on defence by 2035. This surge comes amid a deteriorating security environment shaped by Russia’s war on Ukraine, growing transatlantic uncertainty and intensifying dependencies on non-EU defence suppliers – particularly the United…
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Counting on the Cloud? NATO, Digital Modernisation and Cloud Computing
NATO is enhancing its defence and deterrence in the face of grave geopolitical risks. While the major focus in 2025 is on ramping up the manufacturing of ammunition, missiles, tanks, armoured vehicles and more, there is a risk that the digital elements of the Alliance’s security and defence are marginalised…
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Primed for Deterrence? NATO and the Indo-Pacific in the Age of Great Power Competition
As the United States prioritises deterrence of China in the Indo-Pacific, the question of how Europeans can take primary responsibility for conventional defence in Europe will take centre stage at NATO’s upcoming 76th Summit in The Hague. Against this backdrop, the future of the Alliance’s own Indo-Pacific agenda hinges on…
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Manufacturing Defence: Europe, the Republic of Korea and Defence Industrial Cooperation
South Korea has emerged as a major supplier to European militaries, and this has helped with Europe’s imminent need for military rejuvenation. Given the quality of South Korean defence equipment and supplies, Seoul is viewed with credibility in the defence sector and this bodes well for future cooperation. There remain…
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L’Union européenne de la défense: Commentaire article par article
L’Union européenne de la défense, qui se construit depuis quelques années dans un contexte sécuritaire préoccupant, dépend du droit de l’Union, c’est-à dire tant des règles fixées par les États membres dans les traités que de celles adoptées par les institutions européennes. En effet, l’Union européenne de la défense ne…
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War Economy: Ukraine, the European Union and the Defence Technological and Industrial Base
Ukraine’s defence industry has become a central feature of the country’s military strategy against Russia, and the European Union (EU) understood early on the potential of cooperation with Ukraine in this sector. This CSDS Policy Brief explains how there are several challenges to integrating Ukraine’s defence industry into the European Defence…
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From Liberalisation to Industrial Policy: Towards a Geoeconomic Turn in the European Defence Market?
The European defence market can be described as a geoeconomically relevant sector that forms part of Europe’s overall economy, not least in the way that it is a producer of military capabilities and technologies and a repository of scientific skills. Traditionally, European Union (EU)-level steps to support and liberalise the…
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In Whose Interests? Regulating Europe’s Defence Industry and the Politics of Exemptions
The European Union (EU) needs to ramp-up its defence-industrial production and it is looking to do this with a new financial tool termed the European Defence Investment Programme (EDIP). The introduction of the EDIP will raise questions about the European Commission’s commitment to market liberalisation in the defence sector. Joint…
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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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Defence Matters: Ten Years of European Defence and What Has Really Been Achieved?
Ten years ago to the day, Heads of State and Government met at a specially designated session of the European Council: the focus, European defence. As the meeting conclusions make clear, the leaders saw defence as a critical area of EU policy and they proclaimed their readiness to increase defence budgets, de-fragment European…
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The EU Defence Industrial Strategy: Some Preliminary Reflections
Daniel Fiott In advance of the 2024 EU Defence Industrial Strategy, and before I write a more focused and substantial piece of analysis, I wanted to lay out some key themes and issues that will confront the drafters of the new Strategy. First, let me say that the Strategy itself…
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Navigating the Euro-Atlantic Defence Innovation Landscape
This report set out to analyse emerging transatlantic defence innovation systems and the extent to which EU and NATO efforts in the domain overlap, are in conflict or have potential synergies. The overarching finding is that EU and NATO systems are separate but heavily interdependent. They are separate in terms…
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Digitalization and Hybrid Threats: Assessing the Vulnerabilities for European Security
From artificial intelligence to quantum computing, emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) may be part of the next revolution in military affairs – but it is not clear how EDTs will shape the future of conflict or strategies aimed at countering hybrid threats. This Hybrid CoE Paper seeks to uncover what…
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Promoting Technological Sovereignty and Innovation: Emerging and Disruptive Technologies
Emerging and disruptive technologies (EDT) transcend the four-basket logic of the EU Strategic Compass as they touch on aspects of all issue areas. To break down this complex topic, the workshop was based on two input papers that focused on aspects of sovereignty and innovation. While the discussion cannot and…
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Knowledge is Power? Technology and Innovation in the Indo-Pacific
Abstract Ever since the 1970s, the Indo-Pacific region has steadily become home to increasing levels of technological output, innovation, and people. During this period China’s economic opening, the United States’ technological dominance, and the broader processes of generalised economic globalisation have contributed to the formation of high-tech global value chains.…
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European Sovereignty: Strategy and Interdependence
Abstract The notion of European ‘strategic sovereignty’ is increasingly important to debates about the European Union. Given rapidly shifting global geopolitical and technology trends, and the seeming fragmentation of the multilateral order, the EU is being forced to confront its own position in international affairs. A number of concepts have…
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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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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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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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What Does It Mean to Be a European Defense Company Today?
Après deux décennies marquées par de faibles investissements, la remontée des budgets de défense en Europe et le lancement de nouvelles initiatives (Coopération structurée permanente et Fonds européen de défense en particulier) laissent penser que le tabou sur l’utilisation de fonds européens dans le domaine de la défense est tombé,…
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Innovating and Offsetting? The Political Economy of US Defence Innovation
Defence is the ultimate public good, and it thus falls to government to determine the appropriate amount of public revenue to commit to the defence of the realm. This will depend on history, strategic threat, international security obligations, entreaties from allies and, of course, the threat faced. The Political Economy…
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EU-NATO Cooperation: The Case of Defense R&D
The aim of this chapter is to analyze how the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) stimulate defense research and development (R&D) cooperation among their respective members. The chapter also seeks to understand how, if at all, the EU and NATO cooperate with each other as…
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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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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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One Size to Fit All? Setting Standards for European Defence
Abstract While the crisis in Ukraine may contribute to a revision of defence expenditures in a number of European countries, the task of finding the right balance between cost-effective and strategically-relevant defence spending in Europe is still critical. As defence expenditure generally remains in decline across Europe, a range of…
Daniel Fiott 