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Security and defence

The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is an integral part of EU foreign policy. Through its military operations and civilian missions, the EU has contributed to regional and global stability. Since it's inception, the CSDP has responded to a shifting regional security context. It has played a vital role in crisis management in the EU's near and wider neighbourhood but it is also an essential part of the EU's broader approach to the protection of Europe and capacity building.

Although the Lisbon Treaty consolidated the EU's crisis management apparatus, the EU Global Strategy has set a new level of ambition for EU defence. In addition to the CSDP playing an operational role in the EU's integrated approach to crises, the EU Global Strategy has stressed the need for the EU to become a more capable and effective defence actor. Initiatives such as the European Defence Fund, the coordinated annual defence review (CARD) and more coherent financing for EU operations and capacity building efforts are all aimed at supporting the EU's strategic autonomy and the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. The EUISS continues to support the development of CSDP through outreach activities and expert publications.

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    09August 2010
    Human rights challenges in EU civilian crisis management
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    The EU has placed a growing emphasis on human rights issues in its civilian crisis management operations over the years, in turn creating operational challenges far beyond what has previously been experienced. This paper uses EUPOL and EUJUST LEX as a yardstick for examining the operational models used by the EU and their implications in a human rights perspective.

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    13July 2010
    The Institute's quarterly newsletter No.32
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    In this quarter's issue of the newsletter, EUISS director Álvaro de Vasconcelos writes about Europe's need to continue impressing its brand of multilateral governance. Guest author Srdjan Dizdarevic; suggests that for BiH to move faster towards the EU, civil society is key in pushing the country's politicians for faster reforms. EUISS Senior Research Fellow Giovanni Grevi explores the future of global governance amidst the shifts in power away from the EU and the US and toward emerging countries.

  • 13July 2010
    Unfinished business in Europe: the Western Balkans and Turkey

    This first seminar in the 'Unfinished business in Europe' series focused on the Western Balkans and Turkey with a particular emphasis on securing and stablising Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Macedonia.

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    08July 2010
    Quelle défense européenne en 2020?
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    L’édition originale de cet ouvrage a été publiée en anglais en juillet 2009, puis mise à jour en octobre. C’est la version française, révisée après l’entrée en vigueur du Traité de Lisbonne, que nous présentons au lecteur avec une nouvelle préface par Catherine Ashton, Haute Représentante/Vice-présidente de la Commission européenne.

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    01July 2010
    European Union Security and Defence: Core Documents 2009 — Volume X
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    Each year the Core Documents series provides the Institute’s readers with as inclusive a reference work as possible on the EU’s decisions and actions in the field of security and defence. 2009 marked not only the tenth anniversary of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESPD), but also the beginning of a new era with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, creating a new impetus for the external action of the EU.

  • 18June 2010
    CSDP and Turkey

    Organised with the support of the Instituto Español de Estudos Estratégicos (Spanish Ministry of Defence), Middle East Technical University (METU, Ankara) and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this seminar explored Turkey's role in CSDP operations and ways ahead for future cooperation.

  • 03May 2010
    European perspectives on NATO's strategic concept

    This brainstorming meeting explored European perspectives on NATO's new strategic concept. Taking place in Paris on 3 May 2010, the two sessions focused on what Europe should think about NATO's new strategic concept and what the future holds for EU-NATO cooperation.

  • 26April 2010
    Peacebuilding and the security-development nexus

    In preparation for the 2010 Annual Conference 2010, this seminar focused on how to support peacebuilding in the field. Developing mediation capacities at the local level in conflict-prone and fragile countries was seen as paramount in the peacebuilding sector.

  • 18March 2010
    Lessons from EUFOR Tchad/RCA

    The EUFOR Tchad/RCA lessons learned seminar hosted by the Institute on 18 March facilitated a debate on the effectiveness of the EU mission in Chad. The discussions resulted in a number of recommendations for the planning, conduct and execution of subsequent EU operations and generated several ideas for the future of the CSDP.

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    17February 2010
    Cooperation by Committee
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    This paper examines the examples of the Civilian Crisis Management Committee (Civcom) and EU Military Committee (EUMC), in order to shed light on the transgovernmental dynamic within the field of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the EU’s cornerstone policy mechanism for crisis response in third countries.

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    01December 1998
    Towards a European intelligence policy
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    Decision-making is the essence of any authority, in terms not only of operational effectiveness but also, fundamentally, of political credibility. The task has become more daunting since, with the restoration of shared rules of cohabitation in Europe and hopefully world-wide, the number of actors in national and international relations, as well as of objective factors that transcend national boundaries, has increased exponentially. ...

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    01November 1998
    Cooperative security in the Baltic Sea region
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    The Baltic Sea area has for centuries been a hub of international activity and exchange, embodied in particular by the Hanseatic League, with resulting conditions of intense cooperation and shared prosperity. It is therefore not surprising that, contrary to widespread fears, the situation in the region did not break loose after the bitter divisions imposed by the Cold War: in more ways than one, the region constitutes another 'mediterranean' area, with a potential for political solidarity and common security.

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    01April 1998
    Humanitarian action in a new security environment
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    There has been an unprecedented growth of humanitarian action since the end of the Cold War. Its expansion has coincided with the proliferation of humanitarian organisa­tions. Thus, both the quantitative and the qualitative roles of the humanitarian agencies have significantly changed.

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    01April 1998
    From decoupling to recoupling. A new security relationship between Russia and Western Europe?
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    A European security policy is in the making. It received a decisive impulse in 1997, in particular with the Amsterdam Treaty. It will have to take into account a much transformed international scene in which the traditional balance of power and coexistence mechanisms are pushed aside by a renewed attempt at cooperative security that is not bound by rigidly pre-established formulas.

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    01January 1998
    Safeguarding European competitiveness: Strategies for the future of European arms production and procurement
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    This analysis presents a set of recommendations aimed at improving the competitiveness of the European defence industry, while maintaining a stable and equitable transatlantic relationship in the field of defence. The European armaments industry is faced with declining domestic and international demand, spiraling development and production costs and intense international competition, particularly from the American industry.

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    01December 1997
    Conflict prevention in the Balkans: case studies of Kosovo and the FYR of Macedonia
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    Concerned as they are by the many crises occurring on their very doorstep, the European public, politicians and analysts seem hardly to recognize other conflicts in Europe that have not happened and need not happen. Crisis prevention and peace-building have been sidelined by conflict management and peacekeeping.

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    01October 1997
    L'Europe et la dissuasion nucléaire
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    Pendant la Guerre froide, le facteur nucléaire a structuré et sous-tendu les relations internationales. Il était à la base des stratégies militaires du monde occidental, déterminant toutes les fonctions de défense.

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    01October 1997
    Sweden's Security Policy: Engagement - the Middle Way
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    Since 1814, Sweden's security policy has been anchored to varying degrees of neutrality. Throughout this timeperiod, its interpretation has been flexible and trademarked by an ability to adjust to different external conditions; effectively enabling the country to combine participation in international affairs with an adherence to non-alignment.

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    01October 1997
    The Bosnian war and the new world order
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    The war in Bosnia has witnessed a broad swing in the moods of the "international community" and of European nations particularly. In the wake of the end of the Cold War and of the victory in the Gulf War, expectations run high at the outbreak that collective security would have been able to deal with regional disturbances.

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    01July 1997
    European Public Opinion and Security Policy
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    With the end of the Cold War, security has acquired very different components. In Europe, it has broadened to include conflict prevention and crisis management, in an attempt to substitute persuasion for enforcement. It has essentially become a political rather than a military concept whose features are foresight, transparency and accountability, and which combines political and economic as well as military measures.

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