Breaking new ground: EU-US cooperation in crisis management

The recent EU-US summit held on 26 March 2014 focused on some of the most pressing issues facing the transatlantic partners: the crisis in Ukraine, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and concerns over data protection. Less prominently, but no less significantly, the two partners also used the occasion to further define and provide guidance for their increasing cooperation in international security. Such cooperation encompasses practical engagement in the realm of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This reflects a greater alignment as well as compatibility of strategic, geographic and operational priorities in Brussels and Washington. Priorities include working with (and building up the capacities of) partners, and cooperation not only along the civil-military but increasingly also the military-to-military spectrum.