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Briefs

Raising awareness of both existing and emerging foreign and security policy challenges facing the European Union, EUISS Briefs provide key information in a concise, focused format.

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    27November 2015
    Climate and power: ending the oil age?
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    While necessary for the climate, working through the costs and benefits of going green is an economic challenge with strategic implications. What factors will influence national efforts, and international negotiations, to cut out carbon? This Brief looks into the geopolitics of adjusting to a post-oil age.

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    13November 2015
    Migration: the new ‘push’ and ‘pull’ dynamics
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    This Brief demonstrates how the push and pull dynamics with regard to migration have changed dramatically since 2008. What new factors are pushing humans to leave their homes behind? And will the West will now have to adapt its appeals to universalism?

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    13November 2015
    Defence & technology: the US between Silicon Valley and European allies
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    In response to concerns of losing technological superiority, the US is implementing the Defense Innovation Initiative. This intends to ensure that the Pentagon leverages breakthrough technologies from the traditional defence industrial base and commercial-technology sector alike. Also, what role can Europe play in the US third offset strategy?

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    28October 2015
    Hybrid operations: lessons from the past
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    This Brief examines the rise of hybrid threats, focusing in particular on Russia’s ongoing info-war against the West. Could the ‘psychological defences’ developed by several countries in Western Europe during the Cold War to counter Soviet propaganda now inspire the EU?

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    28October 2015
    Hybrid: what’s in a name?
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    The first in a mini-series of short publications on hybrid warfare, this Brief takes a closer look at what the widely-used term actually means. Now that the European Union considers itself a potential target of hybrid threats, what can it do to prepare an effective strategy to counter them?

  • 12October 2015
    Stuck in the barracks: the Joint Arab Force
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    This Brief explores the failure of the Arab League to make good on its desire to create a Joint Arab Force (JAF). What went wrong with the proposal? And is the project now doomed?

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    30September 2015
    UNSC Resolution 1325 fifteen years on
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    October 2015 will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and conflicts. This Brief shows how UNSCR 1325 has contributed to an increased recognition of the importance of gender issues and of women’s role in the EU’s external policies, and examines the Union’s efforts to incorporate the values of the Resolution into its foreign policy toolkit.

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    30September 2015
    Operation Sophia: tackling the refugee crisis with military means
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    As the EU anti-migrant smuggling operation in the Mediterranean sea – known as ‘EUNAVFOR Med’ or ‘Operation Sophia’ – enters its operational phase, this Brief examines the background to the mission and shows how this operation confirms the maritime dimension of CSDP in the management of new types of security threats.

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    18September 2015
    Ukraine’s other war
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    Ukraine is fighting two wars simultaneously: a hybrid conflict in the east and a war against itself – a struggle against its own dysfunctionality and endemic levels of corruption. What progress has been made? And are the country’s political elite likely to scupper or support further reform efforts?

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    24July 2015
    Putting numbers on capabilities: defence inflation vs. cost escalation
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    This Brief seeks to improve the understanding of the relation between (cripplingly) expensive capabilities and complex security challenges. What are the true effects of cost escalation of weapon systems? And is European defence suffering as a result?

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