Marching to where? The operational dimension of the EU Strategic Compass

On 28 April 2021, the EU Institute for Security Studies and the Clingendael Institute organised a conference on the military and operational dimensions of EU security and defence. The event fed into the dialogue phase of the EU Strategic Compass process and it was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defence of the Netherlands.

The conference saw approximately 90 high-level participants engage in a debate about the EU’s military level of ambition, political and operational decision-making, military coalitions of the willing, the protection of the global commons and more. The event welcomed a number of high-level speakers including Joep Wijnands, Defence Policy Director of the Dutch Ministry of Defence, Vice-Admiral Hervé Bléjean, Director General of the EU Military Staff and Head of the Military Planning and Conduct Capability, Peer Horstmann, Deputy Head of Division for CSDP at the political department of the German Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nicole Koenig, Deputy Director of the Jacques Delors Centre.