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Security and defence

The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) is an integral part of EU foreign policy. Through its military operations and civilian missions, the EU has contributed to regional and global stability. Since it's inception, the CSDP has responded to a shifting regional security context. It has played a vital role in crisis management in the EU's near and wider neighbourhood but it is also an essential part of the EU's broader approach to the protection of Europe and capacity building.

Although the Lisbon Treaty consolidated the EU's crisis management apparatus, the EU Global Strategy has set a new level of ambition for EU defence. In addition to the CSDP playing an operational role in the EU's integrated approach to crises, the EU Global Strategy has stressed the need for the EU to become a more capable and effective defence actor. Initiatives such as the European Defence Fund, the coordinated annual defence review (CARD) and more coherent financing for EU operations and capacity building efforts are all aimed at supporting the EU's strategic autonomy and the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. The EUISS continues to support the development of CSDP through outreach activities and expert publications.

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    09July 2012
    Are Europeans a better transatlantic security partner than meets the eye?
    By

    he latest wave of European military spending cuts is swelling the ranks of Americans who believe that Europeans are not contributing enough to global security. But this assessment is too harsh. It is true that Europeans spend less on defence than their American counterparts. They have also been less willing to use force in recent years. But the US itself is reassessing the merit of its military interventions over the last decade.

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    12June 2012
    Transatlantic strategies in the Asia Pacific
    By

    For the moment, the US presence in the Asia Pacific region provi­des regional and extra-regional actors, including the EU, with security and stability that enable free naviga­tion, trade flows, peaceful development, and avoidance of violent conflicts or confrontations. But how can the EU assume a more active and strategic role in the region?

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    08January 2012
    Toward a new Euro-Atlantic security framework
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    In November 2011, Moscow threatened to deploy tactical nuclear weaponry in Kaliningrad in response to US Missile Defense (MD) radar systems to be deployed in Turkey. Although Washington argued that MD systems are intended to counter Iranian missile systems, Moscow still regards the fourth phase of the Phased Adaptive Approach as potentially threatening to Russia itself. Moscow additionally stated that it might quit New START after the US dropped out of the adapted Conventional Force in Europe (CFE) treaty.

  • 20July 2011
    European Union Security and Defence. Core Documents 2010 — Vol. XI
    By

    Each year the Core Documents series provides the Institute’s readers with as inclusive a reference work as possible on the EU’s decisions and actions in the field of security and defence.

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    20May 2011
    Perspektiven für die europäische Verteidigung 2020
    By

    Wie wird die CSVP in 2020 aussehen? In dieser dritten, auf Deutsch übersetzten Edition des Buches „What ambitions for European defence in 2020?“ zeichnen die Autoren ihre Vision für die Weiterentwicklung ziviler, wie auch militärischer Kapazitäten.

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    11May 2011
    The role of EU defence policy in the Eastern neighbourhood
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    While the current focus of EU foreign policy is firmly trained on its southern neighbourhood, this paper explains why the EU should not forget about the long-simmering disputes in its Eastern neighbourhood – disputes which might once again require EU responses in the future.

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    04April 2011
    CSDP Newsletter No.11
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    The CSDP newsletter aims to give its readers an insight into ongoing work on CSDP development and on crisis management missions. In this current issue, articles on security sector, reform gender activities, Somalia, the EDA and the EU and NATO's future.

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    10March 2011
    The internal-external security nexus: more coherence under Lisbon?
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    Can internal and foreign policy actors develop a shared understanding of European security challenges? What are the political and institutional challenges in establishing a ‘holistic’ approach towards European security? The author argues that the EU can strengthen its existing coordination mechanisms by exploiting the possibilities offered by the Lisbon Treaty.

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    14February 2011
    Franco-British military cooperation: a new engine for European defence?
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    In November 2010 France and Britain embarked on a new era of defence cooperation. Why did they do so? How will it work? And what impact will it have on wider European defence cooperation? In the first in-depth analysis of its kind, the author explores these questions in detail and looks at how Franco-British cooperation can be of benefit to all European states.

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    20December 2010
    A new farewell to arms: viewing disarmament in a new security environment
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    Advocates of disarmament have long maintained that non-conventional weapons are so destabilising to international peace and security that they should be eliminated altogether. This policy brief provides an overview of the disarmament question and examines how it is entering a new phase in a radical new context of globalisation and rapid technology diffusion.

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  • 11March 2016
    Europe’s security and defence: what next?

    This seminar, jointly organised by the EUISS, the Dutch Embassy in Paris and the French and Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence, aimed at stimulating dialogue about the changing nature and increasing importance of national and supranational security policy in Europe.

  • 25February 2016
    ESDC alumni seminar

    This seminar was co-organised by the EUISS, the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), the Egmont Institute, and the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the EU.

  • 02July 2015
    Learning and training for EU CSDP

    On 2-3 July 2015, the EUISS and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), with the support of the European Parliament and the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU, organised an expert seminar on learning and training.

  • 06November 2014
    Presentation of YES 2014 in Vienna

    In partnership with the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, the EUISS presented the abridged German version of its Yearbook of European of European Security 2014 on 6 November in the Austrian capital.

  • 11September 2014
    EUISS annual conference 2014

    The EUISS held its annual conference on 11/12 September in central Paris. This year’s event, entitled ‘European security in a changing global environment’, was an opportunity to convene numerous policy planners and think tankers from across the Europe to discuss European security during a period of major institutional change within the Union.

  • 19June 2014
    Learning by doing: military lessons learnt within the comprehensive approach

    The EU Military Staff, in cooperation with the EU Institute for Security Studies, organised a High-Level Conference entitled ‘Learning by doing - Military lessons learnt within the Comprehensive Approach’ in Brussels on 19-20 June 2014.

  • 06June 2014
    Quelle contribution du militaire à l’approche globale de l’action extérieure de l’UE ?

    On 6 June 2014, the EUISS co-hosted the third seminar of a series of events on the role of the military in CSDP with the French MOD think tank, l'Institut de Recherche stratégique de l’Ecole militaire (IRSEM).

  • 23May 2014
    Crisis management 2014: the EU record

    On 23 May, the EU Institute for Security Studies hosted a double event in Brussels ‘Crisis management 2014: the EU record’ in order to present both its ‘Yearbook of European Security: YES 2014’ and the EUISS/EEAS book ‘Crisis Rooms: towards a global network?’

  • 12May 2014
    Fourth module of the 9th CSDP High Level Course 2013/2014

    From 12 to 16 May 2014, the EUISS co-ran, in cooperation with the Cypriot Ministry of Defence, the fourth module of the 9th CSDP High Level Course 2013/2014 of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC).

  • 08April 2014
    Quelle contribution du militaire à l’approche globale de l’action extérieure de l’UE ?

    On 8 April 2014, the EUISS co-hosted the second seminar of a series of events on the role of the military in CSDP with the French MOD think tank, l'Institut de Recherche stratégique de l’Ecole militaire (IRSEM).

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