The election of Barack Obama has raised major expectations in Europe and opened up new opportunities for dealing with global challenges. Authored by leading experts from both sides of the Atlantic, this book provides an authoritative analysis of the most topical issues facing the European Union and the United States' agendas of today. The volume addresses some global questions - multilateralism, the economy, disarmament and climate change - as well as key regional issues, including Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Russia, Africa and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The book concludes that it is imperative that Europeans and Americans seize 'the Obama moment' in order to capitalise on the urgency of acting now...

This EUISS book examines the first ten years of the European Security and Defence Policy. Benefiting from the analysis of 19 contributors, the book breaks new ground by providing the first comprehensive review of every ESDP operation to date. It explains how the EU institutions responsible for international crisis management have developed and function, reviews the civil and military resources available to ESDP and analyses the key partnerships between the EU and the United Nations, NATO, the OSCE and the African Union. It also contains data on Member State contributions (both civil and military) to EU operations, and compares the combined military resources of the 27 EU governments in 1999 with 2009.

This volume seeks to define Europe’s long-term security and defence ambitions, and to examine how these ambitions might translate into policies. It concludes with a ten-point ‘roadmap to 2020’ based on the premise that the European Union needs to build both a robust civilian and military capacity on the foundations of what has already been achieved while addressing a deficit in policy coherence and consistency, and capability.

Originally published in July 2009, this second edition has been revised in the light of the Irish Lisbon Treaty referendum results.

In this paper, the author argues that it is high time for the European Union to adopt a proactive policy of managing the risks of sensitive technology transfer to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). On the basis of a common understanding of the challenges of transferring dual-use technology, economically, politically and security-wise, the European Union can optimise benefits from opportunities available in the promising and technologically rapidly advancing Chinese market.

The EU and Belarus have arrived at an important but difficult crossroads. After a long freeze, relations between Brussels and Minsk have been thawing over the past year. This Chaillot Paper aims to provide in-depth empirical analysis on a country which, due to its long-standing isolation, remains a blank spot on the European map.