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

  • 17May 2016
    The future of European defence

    On 17 May 2016, the EUISS hosted a launch event for the recently published Chaillot Paper ‘Envisioning European defence: five futures’. This launch event provided a forum for analysts, policymakers and interested stakeholders alike to better understand how the choices of today will impact the European defence of tomorrow.

  • Download document
    19April 2016
    EUISS Yearbook of European Security 2016
    By

    The EUISS Yearbook of European Security (YES) 2016 is the Institute’s annual publication compiling key documents and data related to the EU’s external action for the year 2015. YES is an indispensable publication that aims to inform experts, academics, practitioners and, more generally, all those wishing to know more about the EU and security-related matters through the showcasing of crucial facts and figures.

  • Download document
    13April 2016
    Envisioning European defence – Five futures
    By

    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 order to point out the choices and decisions that need to be made today.

  • Download document
    08April 2016
    Tackling the challenges of SSR
    By

    While the EU is drafting a new strategic framework for Security Sector Reform (SSR), this Alert examines the main challenges that the EU faces in this field.

  • 06April 2016
    The EU and NATO in a more contested world: enabling a genuine strategic partnership

    As part of the series of expert seminars supporting the drafting of the EU Global Strategy, the EUISS and PISM co-organised the seminar 'The EU and NATO in a more contested world: enabling a genuine strategic partnership' in Warsaw on 6 April 2016.

  • Download document
    01April 2016
    A new PLA for a new era
    By

    China’s army-centric military structure – based on a 1950’s Soviet model – had long mismatched the country’s status as world’s second largest economy. This Alert looks at how the push for military reforms reflects Beijing’s changing domestic and regional priorities.

  • 18March 2016
    Expert seminar on SSR

    On 18 March 2016, the EUISS coorganised a closed seminar on the forthcoming EU-wide Strategic Framework for Security Sector Reform (SSR), which is to be released by mid-2016.

  • Download document
    15March 2016
    European defence spending 2015: the force awakens
    By

    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.

  • 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.

  • Download document
    04March 2016
    For EU eyes only? Intelligence and European security
    By

    Intelligence support for the EU’s foreign and security policy has developed from being a small cubicle within Javier Solana’s office into dedicated all-source intelligence units. But what challenges still exist in European intelligence cooperation, and what can be done to bolster it further?

Pages

Pages

  • Download document
    01July 2005
    Attention, danger!
    By

    On avait accusé les électeurs du « non » d’obscurantisme. Les dirigeants font pire, aggravant par le haut la crise que les électeurs d’en bas ont ouverte au sein de l’Union. Du côté des opinions, le message dominant est que rien ne va plus.

  • Download document
    01May 2005
    Defence procurement in the European Union
    By

    In September 2004, the European Commission issued a Green Paper on defence procurement, proposing various options to improve transparency and openness of defence markets between EU member states. The Green Paper opened a discussion on procurement law which rapidly widened into a general debate on how to move towards a common Defence Equipment Market.

  • Download document
    01May 2005
    L'Union et l'Afrique subsaharienne : quel partenariat ?
    By

    Depuis le début des années 1990, l'Union poursuit un objectif ambitieux aujourd'hui défini par la Stratégie européenne de Sécurité : contribuer à un monde meilleur. La région du monde à la fois la plus pauvre et la plus sujette à la violence est celle avec laquelle le projet européen entretient une relation datant de ses origines et dont le destin a longtemps été façonné par ses Etats membres : l'Afrique subsaharienne.

  • Download document
    01April 2005
    Effective non-proliferation: The European Union and the 2005 NPT Review Conference
    By

    The European Union has identified the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as a key threat to its security, and considers the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a cornerstone of its strategy of fighting the spread of WMD. A successful outcome of the NPT Review Conference in May 2005 is thus of essential interest to the Union.

  • Download document
    01April 2005
    The democratic legitimacy of European Security and Defence Policy
    By

    Since the EU has assumed responsibility for military operations, questions of democratic legitimacy have become more prominent in European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Although democracy has been a contested concept, four ‘pillars’ can be distinguished that contribute to a democratically legitimate ESDP. This Occasional Paper analyses each of these pillars.

  • 19February 2005
    Bush in Europe II
    By

    On the eve of what will hopefully be a new start to trans-Atlantic relations, it may be worth recalling some of the European Union's achievements in helping to shape a better and more secure international order. Not just words and nice declarations, but facts and a real ability to deliver.

  • Download document
    01February 2005
    EU security and defence — Core documents 2004
    By

    This fifth volume of Core Documents lists the European Union’s decisions and actions in the field of security and defence taken during 2004. Texts concerning ESDP are collected in the first part of this volume. The second part of this work is devoted solely to the Constitutional Treaty.

  • 01January 2005
    Defence procurement: new ways ahead?
    By

    Important developments are on the way in Europe’s armaments sector. Following the official establishment of the European Defence Agency (EDA), the focus has currently shifted to the Commission’s Green Paper on defence procurement. Published in September, the Green Paper has opened a four-month consultation phase for stakeholders to comment on the Commission’s ideas for a more coherent regulatory framework in this area.

  • Download document
    01December 2004
    Afghanistan : la difficile reconstruction d'un Etat
    By

    L'intervention militaire en Afghanistan d'octobre 2001 a été déterminée uniquement par les attentats du 11 septembre. L'Etat ne peut se reconstruire qu'à partir de la culture politique afghane : il faut pour cela inscrire les réformes dans un cadre idéologiquement légitime (nationalisme, islam), tout en s'adaptant à l'anthropologie politique de l'Afghanistan, où notables et groupes de solidarité locaux jouent un rôle plus important que les grandes tribus ou les ethnies.

  • Download document
    08November 2004
    What is a 'Failing State', and when is it a security threat?
    By

    The European Security Strategy identifies ‘state failure’ as one of the ‘key threats’ confronting Europe. This is one point of convergence with the 2002 US National Security Strategy. However, implicitly distancing itself from the US, the European Security Strategy recognises that ‘none of the new threats is purely military; nor can [they] be tackled by purely military means.’

Pages