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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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  • 01March 2007
    Why EU strategy is relevant today
    By

    The European Union has considerably extended its sphere of activity and its strategic responsibilities since ESDP was launched in 1999. European mobilisation is no longer restricted to tackling crises in the Balkans. The Union is being increasingly called upon to intervene as a stabilising force in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. But why has there been such an expansion at the international level when, on the home front, the European institutional and political dynamic has been blocked for the past two years? And what are the prospects for the future?

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    01March 2007
    EU security and defence — Core documents 2006 — Volume VII
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    The civil war in Iraq, the nuclear issue in Iran, the war in Lebanon, the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock, the energy, Darfur, the disintegration of Somalia, tensions between Georgia and Russia: all these events have increased instability in the EU’s neighborhood in 2006, both to the east and to the south.

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    01February 2007
    Enter the EU Battlegroups
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    This Chaillot Paper aims to give readers an overview of the EU Battlegroups and their prospective evolution. The study addresses four main questions: (i) the process leading to the creation of the EU Battlegroups; (ii) the main elements covered by the EU BG Concept; (iii) the principal challenges and prospects facing the EU Battlegroups; and (iv) how the EU Battlegroups are likely to evolve over the next few years.

  • 29January 2007
    ESDP: from Cologne to Berlin and beyond: operations, institutions and capabilities

    In cooperation with the EUISS, the German Presidency of the European Union organised a conference held in the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on ESDP: addressing operations, institutions and capabilities.

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    01January 2007
    Monitoring a region in crisis: the European Union in West Africa
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    The five West African countries that constitute the Mano River Basin have attracted significant international and regional attention and preoccupation over the last fifteen years. Over the years, a series of agreements has established trade and development aid partnership links between the European Union and the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group of states.

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    01January 2007
    ESDP Newsletter No. 3
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    The EU military operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has come to an end, on schedule, as the presidential election process came to its own successful conclusion. For the first time in decades, this major African country, as large as the entire EU-25, and so crucial for the stability of the Great Lakes region and of Africa as a whole, has elected its president democratically.

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    01November 2006
    Enforcing non-proliferation. The European Union and the 2006 BTWC Review Conference
    Edited by
    With contributions from

    In its 2003 strategy against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the EU underscores that it is ‘committed to the multilateral treaty system’ – considering it the legal and normative stepping stone for all non-proliferation efforts.

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    01October 2006
    Leçons du Liban
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    Qui aurait cru, un an après le marasme politique issu des « non » au référendum sur la Constitution, que l’Union allait devenir, en quelques mois, l’un des acteurs indispensables pour la stabilisation des crises, notamment au Moyen-Orient ?

  • 25September 2006
    Implementing the BTWC: challenges and prospects

    The EUISS held a conference on the Biological and Toxins Weapon Convention (BTWC) in order to examine the challenges associated with the implementation of the BTWC and possible implementation assistance requirements.

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    01July 2006
    Gender mainstreaming: implementing UNSCR 1325 in ESDP missions
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    The European Council in December 2005 welcomed the paper produced by the Council General Secretariat on Implementation of UNSCR 1325 in the context of ESDP (doc.11932/2/05). The EU Institute for Security Studies was invited to conduct a case study on gender mainstreaming in ESDP operations, with specific reference to the missions in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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