You are here

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.

Pages

Pages

Pages

  • Download document
    15July 2009
    EU security and defence: core documents 2008
    By

    This chronological compilation brings together official documents on European security and defence, including statements, decisions and other material from the relevant EU structures. It is a valuable reference tool for all those interested in the EU’s common foreign and security policy, allowing for quick identification of the key issues on the agenda for the year 2008.

  • Download document
    01April 2009
    Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan: the EU’s contribution
    By

    The EU engages in aspects of security sector reform through EUPOL Afghanistan, the police mission launched in 2007, and through the European Commission’s contributions to justice reform in the country. Based on an analysis of past efforts at police reform by the EU and other European and international actors, this paper identifies a set of internal and external coordination challenges that hamper mission success.

  • Download document
    16March 2009
    From Suez to Shanghai: the European Union and Eurasian maritime security
    By

    This paper looks at the emerging geopolitical situation in the Eurasian coastal zone, concentrating on the geostrategic activities of China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States. This zone, it argues, is both critically important for the EU in terms of shipping for manufactured goods and energy supplies, and likely to experience great power competition and general disorder over the coming decades.

  • Download document
    01February 2009
    The European Security Strategy 2003-2008: building on common interests
    By
    With contributions from

    This report follows on from the series of seminars organised in 2008 by the EUISS on the European Security Strategy. It contributes to the debate on policy options generated by the December 2008 European Council, which put forward guidelines for the implementation of the Strategy in the coming years, and looks at how to increase the consistency and coherence of EU external action.

  • Download document
    01January 2009
    CSDP Newsletter No.7
    By

    EULEX Kosovo is finally up and running after a long planning phase. It began operations on 9 December 2008 and has been breaking new ground for the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) as the EU's largest civilian mission.

  • Download document
    31December 2008
    The EU, NATO and European Defence: a slow train coming
    By

    This paper examines the proposals on European defence under discussion during the 2008 French EU Presidency. While Americans and Europeans alike support stronger EU-NATO cooperation, the output has so far been unsatisfactory. The paper examines initiatives for a stronger, more unitary European security structure.

  • Download document
    19November 2008
    Towards a European Defence Market
    Edited by
    With contributions from

    EU governments are gradually coming around to the idea that they need to open up their defence markets. The European Commission is currently proposing new procurement and trade directives aimed at streamlining defence market legislation. The proposed directives would open up the defence market, improve European cooperation on armaments and lead to a more competitive European defence industry.

  • Download document
    04November 2008
    Avoiding confrontational bipolarity
    By

    This issue of the EUISS newsletter looks at the need to avoid confrontational bipolarity in the wake Georgia conflict, assesses prospects for a regional solution to the Afghanistan conflict, and examines ESDP ten years after the St Malo Anglo-French summit. It also gives a round up of the Institute’s recent seminar series on the European Security Strategy, as well as the latest publications and press clippings.

  • 28October 2008
    Opening up European defence markets: the challenges ahead
    By

    It has become a cliché to observe that Europe’s armies need many new military capabilities. But EU governments are still doing very little to remedy the problem. European armed forces struggled to fight alongside the US during the Kosovo war in 1999 because they lacked sophisticated equipment.

    As a result EU governments signed up to a number of “headline goals” to improve their military prowess. But it is hard to find much concrete evidence of real improvements in European military equipment over the last decade.

  • Download document
    23October 2008
    EU Security and Defence: Core Documents 2007 (Vol. VIII)
    By

    This chronological compilation brings together official documents on European security and defence, including statements, decisions and other material from the relevant EU structures. It is a valuable reference tool for all those interested in the EU’s common foreign and security policy, allowing for quick identification of the key issues on the agenda for the year 2007.

Pages

Pages

  • 09March 2009
    Presentation of ISS Report nº 5

    European Security Strategy 2003-2008 Building on common interests

  • 04February 2009
    Cyber security: what role for CFSP?

    The seminar’s goal was to initiate a first discussion on the implications for the EU of the cyber security agenda and related threats; to raise subject awareness; and to identify a number of critical issues for the possible development of a policy under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).

  • 31October 2008
    2008 Annual Conference - Partnerships for effective multilateralism: managing global crises

    The Institute’s 2008 annual conference took place on 30-31 October in Paris. It opened with the traditional address by EU High Representative Javier Solana, who outlined the current challenges in EU foreign policy, particularly in the light of the global financial crisis.

  • 18September 2008
    Strengthening ESDP: the EU's approach to international security

    This seminar was the third in the EUISS’s 2008 series on the implementation of the European Security Strategy. Taking place in Helsinki on 18-18 September, it focused on the EU’s security and defence policy (ESDP).

  • 06June 2008
    The EU and global governance: rules, power and priorities

    The first seminar in the series addressing 'European Interests and Strategic Options' was held in Rome on 5 and 6 June 2008 in cooperation with the Istituto Affari Internazionali and addressed the Union’s goal to develop ‘an international order based on effective multilateralism’.

  • 14March 2008
    European Security and Defence Policy: Dialogue between the EU and its Mediterranean partners

    This high-level seminar held in Rabat in partnership with the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation examined Morocco's relationship with ESDP, including Moroccan involvement in EU and other peacekeeping missions to date, and priorities for cooperation between the EU and its Mediterranean partners.

  • 24September 2007
    Sino-European Strategic Dialogue

    The EUISS and the Asia Centre co-hosted the second Sino-European dialogue on security which focused on crisis prevention and crisis management, non-proliferation in the Korean Peninsula, promotion of stability in Africa, and the transparency of EU and Chinese defence policies.

  • 27June 2007
    Reviewing Conflict & Post-Conflict Management in Africa

    This seminar aimed at reviewing standard political and economical formula in implementing peace. As five ESDP operations have taken place in Africa, this seminar also aimed at identifying the international and local contexts in which the EU is developing its crisis management instruments.

  • 30May 2007
    Challenges in missile non-proliferation - multilateral approaches

    This conference, jointly organised with the German Presidency and the Council of the European Union, examined the challenges posed by missile proliferation and focused on the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC).

  • 16March 2007
    GMES: the security dimension

    This seminar was organised with the support of the Council General Secretariat, the European Commission, and the EU Satellite Centre and sought to raise awareness of the security dimension of GMES and to obtain guidance for implementation.

Pages