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EU foreign policy

With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009 and its subsequent implementation, the European Union has gradually assembled the constituent elements of a sui generis 'foreign policy', bringing together various competencies, instruments and resources that were hitherto spread across different institutions and bodies. Although the process is still on-going and progress is, in parts, uneven, certain traits of a more coherent common approach to foreign policy-making are now evident. In the Balkans, the Horn of Africa (both offshore and onshore), the Sahel, or the Middle East, joint and combined forms of external action - including diplomacy, enlargement, CSDP and development activities - are now producing more effective and lasting results.

Analysing the specific actors, instruments, policies, and strategies at the disposal of the Union and assessing their scope and outreach is also a way to illustrate what the EU does in the world - something which is not always known or appreciated by those who directly benefit from its external action, or indeed by European citizens at large. Monitoring performance, in turn, also contributes to improving it, in a constructive manner and on the basis of factual evidence.

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  • 29May 2006

    The purpose of this seminar was twofold: to reflect on the prospects and difficulties of global governance and analyse the actual and potential roles of the European Union in global governance.

  • 19May 2006

    The EUISS and the European Centre Natolin in Poland held a conference in Warsaw/Natolin,in order to debate the future of EU foreign policy and to foster two-way (involving old-new member states) strategic thinking inside the EU.

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    15May 2006

    It is the general perception in Washington that EU-US relations are on the road to recovery after Iraq, though overall interest in the EU remains moderate in the United States. The EU needs to capitalise more systematically on the fact that its opinions on Iran are listened to in Washington. In this way, the EU can contribute to and influence the American debate.

  • 01May 2006

    I was in Montenegro 20-24 May over the referendum period, and in Belgrade 24-27 May to gauge reactions to the result there. The following note presents my reflections on the significance of the referendum for EU Balkans policy; on the prospects for independent Montenegro; and reactions in Belgrade.

  • 03April 2006

    This seminar sought to analyse the new political environment following elections in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and reflect on possible courses of action for the European Union as an external actor that has declared support for a peaceful resolution of the dispute.

  • 03March 2006

    In response to the growing interest in Chinese affairs and the manifest uncertainty in the EU about how to approach this new emerging superpower, the EUISS organised on 3 March 2006 a brainstorming seminar dedicated to the development of European security thinking on China.

  • 01March 2006

    (a modified version of this analysis was published by European Voice, 23-29 March 2006)
    In his now famous essay 'Power and Paradise' Robert Kagan forcefully argued that 'America was from Mars and Europe from Venus' and as a consequence of this America and Europe were diverging and going down different paths.

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    01March 2006
    By

    A year of striking contrasts, 2005 will go down in the annals as a year in which the European Union experienced a major political crisis, while at the same time showing remarkable dynamism on the international stage. This volume contains as comprehensive a compendium as possible of the initiatives undertaken by the European Union in the field of security and defence in 2005.

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    01March 2006

    The European Union (EU) has for a long time paid attention to processes of regional integration and cooperation on other continents. However, the relations the EU has developed with other regional or sub-regional organisations until a very recent period were essentially focused on economic, development and trade issues, partly because of the late emergence of the EU itself as a foreign and security actor.

  • 24February 2006

    On 24 February 2006, the Institute organised a high-level seminar on whether the EU can have a policy towards the Black Sea region and develop a region-wide strategy and, if so, how and in which areas.

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    01May 2002

    Many observers have mocked the divisions among Europeans, their absence and therefore their impotence, in the search for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But that is to forget that it is above all the strongest player who lacks the will to act, and that today it is in particular in the European theatre that the Union’s performance, or lack of it, should be judged.

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    01April 2002

    This paper collects the papers delivered by a group of mostly young researchers from the ten Central European candidate countries in response to a grid of common questions submitted to them by the Institute for Security Studies in 2001. The considerations that follow summarize the main results of the project, compare the national views, and put them in a broader political context.

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    01April 2002

    This is the second volume in our special series of Chaillot Papers presenting core documents on the EU’s security and defence policy. Unlike the first volume, which focused on the whole period from St-Malo to Nice (December 1998 - December 2000), this volume and subsequent ones will recapitulate developments regarding ESDP during the preceding year.

  • 28March 2002

    Che l'Unione europea non sia una potenza comparabile agli Stati Uniti risulta evidente dai fatti, a cominciare dal gap crescente - tecnologico e di bilancio - fra gli investimenti militari delle due sponde dell'Atlantico. Che neanche debba porsi l'obiettivo di emulare gli Stati Uniti è invece meno evidente.

  • 13March 2002

    One of the most striking examples of the potential for new transatlantic solidarity after the September 11 terrorist attacks was the publication by the French newspaper Le Monde, not known to be reflexively pro-American, of an editorial entitled "We are all Americans." The degree to which that solidarity has now dissipated was illustrated by a rather different headline in that same newspaper five months later: "Has the United States gone crazy?"...

  • 01March 2002

    What is the correlation between sport and international politics? More specifically, is there any connection or causal relationship between the game of football - the most global and at the same time most European of sports - and the way in which "Europe" has developed inside its borders and projected itself outside? And, if so, exactly what? All these questions may mesmerize both the educated fan and the open-minded pundit...

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    01March 2002

    Just as Königsberg became known for its intellectual weight, symbolised by the brain-twister how to cross the city's seven bridges without passing one of them twice; Kaliningrad is notorious for the immense problems it has to deal with, perhaps mirrored by the inconclusive ways the EU and the Kremlin are figuring out how to assist the oblast.

  • 27February 2002

    Fra le oltre 50 domande sul futuro dell’Europa contenute nel testo della Dichiarazione di Laeken, un gruppo abbastanza consistente riguarda il ruolo internazionale dell’Unione e, in particolare, il possibile sviluppo di una politica estera e di difesa piu’ "coerente" ed efficace.

  • 25February 2002

    Aux Etats-Unis, l'explosion de l'effort militaire - 1 milliard de dollars de dépenses par jour - frappe autant par l'ampleur des chiffres annoncés que par l'implosion réciproque du discours politique américain. Comme si la stratégie militaire tenait lieu à elle seule de toute stratégie.

  • 07February 2002

    Ce n’est pas l’Irak qui divise les Européens, c’est leur rapport à l’Amérique. Aucun gouvernement européen n’a jamais pris la défense du dictateur irakien, aucun ne nie non plus la menace que représente un Irak potentiellement doté d’armes de destruction massive et tous font du désarmement de l’Irak, sous l’égide des Nations Unies, l’une des priorités de la communauté internationale.

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