Defence industry

Artificial intelligence and autonomous systems are already disruptive technologies in civilian sectors, and the same is likely to happen when they become more prevalent in the military realm. This Alert focuses on the non-lethal applications of artificial intelligence and...

Since lifting its historic ban on arms exports in April 2014, Japan has faced an obstacle-ridden path in becoming an arms exporter. This Alert explores the track record of transfers of Japanese military equipment in the past 18 months, and how the transfers contribute to Tokyo’s...

This Chaillot Paper – a collective endeavour on which the five authors have collaborated – outlines five possible future scenarios for European defence. The aim is to develop plausible and coherent descriptions of what European defence might look like a decade or two from now in...

In response to the worsening security environment, cuts to European defence budgets are finally being reversed. In this Brief, defence spending data from 2015 are spliced by region and by category to show how the calculus is changing in defence ministries across Europe.

2015 saw Russia, Saudi Arabia and China invest heavily in their militaries, while Europeans have largely reversed long-standing defence budget cuts, too. Increases in defence spending have, however, had very different implications for the military activities of the respective...

In 2015, the European Commission invited key personalities from European industry, government, the European Parliament and academia to advise it on establishing a Preparatory Action on Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)-related research. This Report is the result of...

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...

Changes in the post-Cold War strategic landscape have, among other things, affected WEU countries' Defence Industrial and Technological Base (DITB). The further evolution of WEU, with respect to the recently defined EU reform and that impending in NATO, heightens the importance...

The Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention will convene in Geneva for the 7th Review Conference between 5-22 December 2011. Because scientific research and the industrial application of this science contain certain inherent dangers, this paper argues that it is imperative that...

The EU's military planning capacity is in need of a major overhaul. The lack of a permanent operational planning headquarters undermines peacekeeping performance, and more broadly, the development of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). This Occasional Paper seeks to...