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. They will also need to move to a new paradigm of the EU-US relationship and NATO's role within it - one that takes account of the fact that the West needs 'the Rest' to deal with the most pressing issues of our time.

‘This book is an important contribution to the debate on how we can renew our Transatlantic Partnership for a new age. As we grapple with pressing global problems …  it is vital that Europeans and Americans continue to pull in the same direction. This book lays out the challenges and choices we face. It deserves to be widely read.’
Javier Solana, High Representative for the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy

‘A timely contribution to the much-needed dialogue regarding transatlantic relations. Both sides need to understand each other better and this volume helps its readers understand the causes of discord and the key issues to be addressed.’
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor to President Carter

‘The EUISS Transatlantic Book 2009 is a valuable contribution on a crucially important and most timely subject.  Altogether, it does much to facilitate US-European cooperative efforts in very constructive ways.’
David A. Hamburg, President Emeritus, Carnegie Corporation of New York

 Summary

See also:
Interview with Álvaro de Vasconcelos: "Europe must seize the Obama moment" on dw-world.
Commentary on the book on the RiaNovosti website.
Blog spot in the US edition of Reuters.

What Ambitions for European Defence in 2020? ran out of print within a month of publication, and many orders for copies were left outstanding. Instead of immediately ordering a reprint, a slightly revised edition giving all contributors the chance to refresh their conclusions in the light of the Irish Lisbon Treaty referendum results was decided as a far better option. This was not particularly difficult. In looking ahead, the general assumption was that the main provisions of the Lisbon Treaty, in content if not necessarily in form, would be implemented over the next decade. What now emerges from the revised chapters is an equally shared sense of urgency that they should be implemented as speedily as possible. Effectiveness should start at home, and although there is a shared sentiment that clarifications are needed for the new provisions to come into effect as the Lisbon Treaty comes into force, there is an equally strong feeling that this should be done swiftly.

‘This book makes a significant contribution to the debate on the future of ESDP and the implications of what the Lisbon Treaty could and should bring to it, identifying the obstacles to progress and solutions for addressing them. I am grateful to the EUISS for this important initiative and to the contributors for their valuable input.’
Javier Solana (Preface)

‘...many of the questions raised in this timely volume, and many of its conclusions, will shape the debate within Europe and across the Atlantic for years to come. No one concerned with Europe’s future as a world power, whether policymaker or scholar, can afford to miss it.’
Simon Serfaty, Brzezinski Chair, Center for Strategic & International Studies

‘...since 2002 the European Union has had its own foreign policy think-tank, the European Union Institute for Security Studies, and its publications are often worth a look. On July 28th, the EUISS launched a hefty book carrying predictions about what EU security and defence policy might look like in 2020.’
The Economist, Charlemagne

‘A new publication from the Paris-based European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) to mark the tenth anniversary of the European Security and Defence Policy says that the EU needs ‘‘to build a twin robust civilian and military capacity’’ over the next decade. The EU, through projecting its values of liberalism, human rights and democracy, can be a major force for good in the world, the report’s authors argue...’
The Sunday Business Post

Despite dramatic changes in global security since 1999, in many ways the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has been a success. The EU has helped resolve conflicts and build peace by deploying soldiers, police, judges and diplomats to crisis zones in the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. But the first ten years of ESDP show that it has been hampered by some key weaknesses, such as a lack of resources and intermittent political backing from EU governments.
This EUISS book examines the evolution of ESDP and breaks new ground in three ways:

- It includes the first comprehensive review of every ESDP operation to date, some 23 missions in total, assessing their achievements and shortcomings.

- It analyses the key relationships between the EU and the United Nations, NATO, the OSCE and the African Union - partnerships which are fundamental in today's changing world.  

- It 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. 

The book concludes with some recommendations to drive the future of ESDP. These include: firmer political backing for operations from EU governments; more integrated institutions in Brussels for planning and managing operations; increasing military and civil resources; and developing more effective partnerships with others. 

The contributors to this book include the following:

Esra Bulut, Caty Clément, George Dura, Sabine Fischer, Benedikt Franke, Richard Gowan, Giovanni Grevi, Eva Gross, Damien Helly, Isabelle Ioannides, Daniel Keohane, Daniel Korski, Xymena Kurowska, Dov Lynch, Claudia Major, Michael Merlingen, Luis Peral, Kirsten E. Schulze, and Thierry Vircoulon.

The EUISS has conducted a wide-ranging exercise to detect the long-term trends, factors and actors shaping the global environment of European integration - The New Global Puzzle. This Report illustrates the evolution of the key structural factors affecting change over the two decades to come - demography, the economy, energy, the environment, science and technology - and addresses some of the main questions concerning the future of the international system. The Report also includes seven regional outlooks exploring prospective developments of relevance to the European Union in Russia/Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, the United States, China, India and Latin America.

Many critical junctures can be envisaged over the decades to come, from energy supply shocks to environmental catastrophes, from renewed confrontation between large state powers to a systemic breakdown of the Middle East. The development of the European Union into a fully-fledged global actor requires a shared assessment of the future challenges, threats and opportunities with which it will be confronted, and of the best options to drive, as opposed to endure, change.

This Report argues that the biggest challenge confronting the EU will be to reconcile the emerging multipolar international system with a sustainable, effective multilateral order. The Report is intended as a first step in paving the way towards further reflection on the future position and role of the EU in the world. Both experts and the policy-making community, at the European and national levels, need to engage in this debate with a view to defining common, effective responses to tomorrow's challenges.

Three years after the crisis ignited by America’s decision to go to war in Iraq, can the United States and the European Union be said to be ‘friends again’? After a rocky and on occasion openly acrimonious period in EU-US relations during George W. Bush’s first presidency,it seems that transatlantic relations have returned to a more harmonious state. A broad convergence of perspectives has emerged which has led to instances of practical co-operation, for example towards Iran, Syria and Afghanistan. Even Iraq has ceased to divide the allies in the way it used to, although on both sides of the Atlantic fundamental views on the war have not changed.
Still, many questions remain regarding the depth, scope and solidity of this new US-EU partnership. This volume brings together a unique collection of contributions written by experts from both sides of the Atlantic and from different shades of the political spectrum. The authors explore the issue from various angles, including the alleged rise of anti-Americanism in Europe, America’s involvement in the Middle East, EU and US relations with Russia, and the importance of transatlantic economic bonds. The final section of the book assesses the extent to which EU-US relations have recovered since the crisis of 2003, and considers the prospects for the future of the transatlantic relationship.

In September 2004, the European Commission issued a Green Paper on defence procurement, proposing various options to improve transparency and openness of defence markets between EU member states. The Green Paper opened a discussion on procurement law which rapidly widened into a general debate on how to move towards a common Defence Equipment Market.
The starting point of the debate is the use of Art. 296 TEC, which gives member states the possibility to derogate from the rules of the Internal Market for the procurement of arms, munitions and war material. Although this exemption is subject to certain conditions, most governments have interpreted Art. 296 as a blank cheque, excluding defence procurement almost completely from Community rules. This practice has led to inefficient market fragmentation and a lack of intra-European competition.
The Green Paper identifies two options for action to improve the situation: an Interpretative Communication, which would specify the conditions governing the use of Art. 296 on the basis of existing Community law; and a new Directive adapted to the specificities of defence for procurement contracts which are not covered by Art. 296 but for which the civil Directive may be ill-suited. In addition, member states tasked the European Defence Agency to explore possibilities of a Code of Conduct to foster competition within the scope of Art. 296. By the end of 2005, both the Commission and member states will decide on how to proceed and which elements to develop.
Given the importance of these issues the EUISS established a Task Force to assess the various options for action. The present report is the fruit of that work. It concludes that Communication, Directive and Code are not alternatives to one another, but complementary. It therefore recommends that all three of them should be developed concurrently. In order to optimise their effectiveness, the Commission and the Defence Agency should work out solutions in related areas. All of these initiatives should be launched in parallel as part of a comprehensive strategy for the establishment of a common European Defence Equipment Market.

Since the Cologne European Council of June 1999, the Union has been implementing a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) under the aegis of Javier Solana, High Representative for CFSP and future EU Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Just what is ESDP? What are the ambitions of the Union in security and defence matters? What has been accomplished in the last five years? What are the different sensitivities of the 25 member states regarding the future of European defence? How should relations be developed with NATO and the United States? What effect will the constitutional Treaty have on the evolution of the Union’s international role? These questions form the basis of this collective work by the European Union Institute for Security Studies. The reader will find here the most exhaustive critical assessment possible of the assets and achievements of the Union during the course of the first five years of ESDP (1999-2004). The book is comprised of two parts:
The first, written by the Institute’s research fellows, analyses the different aspects of ESDP since its creation and highlights possible prospects.
The second part consists of the views of various personalities who were the actors and privileged witnesses to ESDP over the last five years – journalists, industrialists, parliamentarians, experts, senior officials of the Union.

this book is available in the following languages:

Deutsch 
Die Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik der EU
Die ersten fünf Jahre (1999-2004)

Español
Política de Seguridad y Defensa de la Unión Europea
Los cinco primeros años (1999-2004)

Italiano
La politica di sicurezza e difesa dell'UE
I primi cinque anni (1999-2004)

Europe is at peace but the world is not. Following the shock of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the Institute decided, two years ago, to convene an independent task force in order to address the issue of future European capabilities. Made up of some of the best-known academic experts on ESDP, this independent task force shared a basic assumption: even though the use of force is not the first nor the only way to deal with regional or international crises, the EU will need to have at its disposal a certain level of forces, at a certain level of readiness and operational efficiency, if only to widen the range of its options when faced with a crisis and facilitate the ultimate decision at the highest political level.
The main task of the group was to determine the most likely generic crisis scenarios that the EU could face in the decades to come, to assess the capabilities needed to meet each of these contingencies, to identify the main shortfalls within current European forces, and to propose remedies and options for adapting European capabilities, if military intervention were to be decided on at the EU level.

The idea behind this transatlantic book predates the intense transatlantic exchanges that took place prior to the war in Iraq in early 2003. The run-up to the passage of UN Resolution 1441 in November 2002 provided clear indications that Euro-American relations were about to enter previously uncharted territory.
Given these developments, the Institute decided to produce an extensive study analysing the state of transatlantic relations. For each topic, two authors – one American and one European – were commissioned to provide their thoughts and insights. The result is twelve distinct chapters covering six diverse topics. The book provides both a general overview of US-European relations and investigates specific issue areas through case studies. The diversity on the American side is particularly great, with five different institutions represented among the authors. On the European side, contributions come from the multinational research team at the EU Institute for Security Studies.
This book should be of interest to policy-makers, analysts in academia, and research institutes concerned with EU-US relations. With transatlantic relations at a crossroads, near-term developments will be critical for determining the future direction of the partnership. A lively alliance with America could be as likely as a widening gap between the two partners. This book attempts to shed light on these potential evolutions – aiming to contribute to the overall policy debate presently taking place.