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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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    14February 2011
    Franco-British military cooperation: a new engine for European defence?
    By

    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
    By

    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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    01November 2010
    What do Europeans want from NATO?
    By
    With contributions from

    The future of NATO is of paramount importance for EU foreign policy. Yet no official EU perspective has been publicly formulated on NATO’s 2010 strategic concept, or how it should complement the EU’s foreign and security policies. This report is a contribution to the debate about NATO’s future, and what that may mean for the EU.

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    23August 2010
    CSDP Newsletter No.10
    By

    Among the features in this issue:

    training of Somali soldiers in Uganda and counter piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the Lisbon Treaty and the new ground for CSDP, and the EU's response to the Haiti earthquake.

    The cover story takes us to the EU training mission for Somalia and EUNAVFOR-Atalanta.

    The newsletter also focuses on EULEX

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    09August 2010
    Human rights challenges in EU civilian crisis management
    By

    The EU has placed a growing emphasis on human rights issues in its civilian crisis management operations over the years, in turn creating operational challenges far beyond what has previously been experienced. This paper uses EUPOL and EUJUST LEX as a yardstick for examining the operational models used by the EU and their implications in a human rights perspective.

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    13July 2010
    The Institute's quarterly newsletter No.32
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    In this quarter's issue of the newsletter, EUISS director Álvaro de Vasconcelos writes about Europe's need to continue impressing its brand of multilateral governance. Guest author Srdjan Dizdarevic; suggests that for BiH to move faster towards the EU, civil society is key in pushing the country's politicians for faster reforms. EUISS Senior Research Fellow Giovanni Grevi explores the future of global governance amidst the shifts in power away from the EU and the US and toward emerging countries.

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    08July 2010
    Quelle défense européenne en 2020?
    By

    L’édition originale de cet ouvrage a été publiée en anglais en juillet 2009, puis mise à jour en octobre. C’est la version française, révisée après l’entrée en vigueur du Traité de Lisbonne, que nous présentons au lecteur avec une nouvelle préface par Catherine Ashton, Haute Représentante/Vice-présidente de la Commission européenne.

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    01July 2010
    European Union Security and Defence: Core Documents 2009 — Volume X
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    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. 2009 marked not only the tenth anniversary of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESPD), but also the beginning of a new era with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, creating a new impetus for the external action of the EU.

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    17February 2010
    Cooperation by Committee
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    This paper examines the examples of the Civilian Crisis Management Committee (Civcom) and EU Military Committee (EUMC), in order to shed light on the transgovernmental dynamic within the field of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the EU’s cornerstone policy mechanism for crisis response in third countries.

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    20January 2010
    Planning for EU military operations
    By

    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 reconcile the need to address existing deficiencies in military planning and command and control with the general resistance to a permanent military operational headquarters.

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  • 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).

  • 06March 2014
    Managing crisis, building peace: EU and US comprehensive approaches

    On 6 March 2014, the EUISS, in cooperation with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, organised a seminar in Washington, D.C. to discuss the place of peace-building in respective EU and US institutional structures and broader strategic considerations.

  • 15January 2014
    What contribution of the military to the EU’s Comprehensive Approach to external action?

    On 15 January, 2014, the EUISS hosted the first seminar of a series of events co-organised with the French MOD think tank, l'Institut de Recherche stratégique de l’Ecole militaire (IRSEM).

  • 10December 2013
    The ESS@10: revisiting the European Security Strategy 2003-2013

    Opening with a speech by H.E. Linas Linkevičius, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, this international conference was organised in order to mark the 10th anniversary of the adoption of the European Security Strategy (ESS) by the European Council.

  • 26November 2013
    The EUISS in Berlin - November 2013

    A delegation from the EUISS traveled to the German capital in order to promote the shortened German version of the EUISS Yearbook for European Security (YES) and attend the Berlin Security Conference.

  • 19September 2013
    CSDP between internal constraints and external challenges: the road ahead

    The EUISS, in collaboration with King´s College London, organised a conference in London on 19 and 20 September in order to develop a series of practical proposals on CSDP leading up to the December 2013 European Council.

  • 23May 2013
    EUISS annual conference 2013

    The 2013 Annual Conference of the EU Institute for Security Studies, entitled ‘European Security. Taking stock and moving forth’, took place in Paris on 23 and 24 May. In addition to a keynote address by HR/VP Catherine Ashton, the conference provided a platform to present the new team of the Institute as well as the first EUISS Yearbook.

  • 13March 2013
    EU Washington Forum 2013

    Taking place in Washington, D.C on the 13-14 March, the 2013 EUWF served as a reminder that diplomacy, development and defence are all important elements in attempts to maintain stability and generate growth, even in times of budgetary constraints.

  • 08June 2012
    The impact of the EU Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 2002-2012

    This seminar, jointly organised by the EU Police Mission (EUPM) and the EUISS and held in Sarajevo on the 7-8 June, marked 10 years of EU civilian crisis management in the Western Balkans and examined the impact of the EUPM in Bosnia and Herzegovina and lessons learned for the future of CFSP/CSDP.

  • 18March 2012
    Visit of US Journalism Students to Brussels

    In March 2012 the EUISS and the EU Delegation to the United States organised a briefing session for a group of aspiring American journalists in Brussels. Following this event, the EUISS, in partnership with the Medill School at the Northwestern University in Chicago, published the best work of selected students here online.

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