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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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  • 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).

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    16April 2014
    One size to fit all? Setting standards for European defence
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    At present, the European defence market is fragmented and characterised by a plethora of national standards. But with the need for defence standardisation becoming increasingly critical in an era marked by declining defence expenditure, what steps can be taken to ensure success?

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    09April 2014
    Defence matters – EU key documents 2013
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    An essential point of reference for all those who work in the field of CSDP, this compendium collects the official documents generated by all EU institutional actors in preparation of the ‘defence summit’ of 19/20 December 2013 and the Conclusions adopted by the EU heads of state and government at the end of the process.

  • 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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    21March 2014
    No TTIP-ing point for European defence?
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    Although the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will not directly cover to the defence sector, dual-use goods and technologies are increasingly blurring the lines between defence and civilian commercial realms. What impact will the TTIP have on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate in the European defence sector, and what of the future of the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base?

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    07March 2014
    CSDP: getting third states on board
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    Presented in the context of a broader CFSP agenda, this Brief provides an overview of the valuable contributions and political support by partner countries to CSDP missions to date. How can this process now be best employed to bolster the overall legitimacy of the EU’s international security role?

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    07March 2014
    Defence budgets: Europe's Maginot moment?
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    As EU member states try to juggle decreasing budgets and increasing costs in the face of an ever more unstable neighbourhood, is Europe trying to maintain its defences by cutting everything that makes them viable? This Brief suggests a few answers by looking at some of the latest data available on defence.

  • 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.

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    24January 2014
    EUFOR RCA Bangui: 'defence matters'
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    With the decision to launch EUFOR RCA Bangui, EU member states appear to be displaying a willingness to inject new momentum into crisis management in sub-Saharan Africa. But how likely is it that the situation in the CAR will be sufficiently stable in six months to allow the EU to declare victory and hand over to AU forces or the UN?

  • 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).

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  • 16July 2002
    Joining forces
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    It is now widely accepted that Europe does not spend enough on defence. Most European defence budgets were dramatically cut back after the cold war and have remained at a very low level ever since. This governmental parsimony has had a damaging effect in two respects. First, it has resulted in glaringly obvious gaps in Europe's military capability.

  • 01June 2002
    More €uros for European Capabilities Budgetary discipline and/or defence expenditure
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    It is known all too well that Europe has a defence budget problem. Both the quantity and the quality of its defence spending are largely insufficient to provide for the capabilities the EU needs to fulfil its declared ambitions

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    01June 2002
    Enlargement and European defence after 11 September
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    All three Central European candidates for EU membership have gone through an evolutionary (and learning) process as regards the development of ESDP: from scepticism and worry – that it could undermine NATO – to qualified acceptance and more direct involvement.

  • 14May 2002
    L'Otan va changer parce que l'Amérique change
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    Tous les alliés européens de Washington sont perplexes, voire inquiets, devant les évolutions stratégiques des Etats-Unis, et en particulier devant leur attitude à l'égard de l'Otan. Ils constatent en effet que l'unilatéralisme américain, cette méfiance envers toute démarche et institutions multilatérales, s'applique aussi à l'égard de l'Otan, qui était jusque-là perçue comme l'organisation internationale favorite de Washington

  • 01May 2002
    Paying for EU crisis management
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    Europeans spend much less than Americans on defence but are quite ready to engage in crisis management in so far as it entails a strong commitment to peace-building, especially (but not exclusively) in their immediate neighbourhood. Their political, financial and military presence in the Balkans - under different flags - is a good case in point. Comparing EU and US military budgets is therefore misleading and to a certain extent unfair:....

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    01May 2002
    L’ONU au Kosovo : leçons de la première MINUK
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    Par la résolution 1 244 du Conseil de Sécurité, pour la première fois dans l’Histoire, les Nations unies se sont vu confier au Kosovo à partir du mois de juin 1999 une mission d’un nouveau type, visant non plus simplement à maintenir la paix mais à la construire, dans toutes ses dimensions, politique, démocratique, administrative, juridique, économique…

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    01May 2002
    Risks of the status quo
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    Many observers have mocked the divisions among Europeans, their absence and therefore their impotence, in the search for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But that is to forget that it is above all the strongest player who lacks the will to act, and that today it is in particular in the European theatre that the Union’s performance, or lack of it, should be judged.

  • 01April 2002
    America's military strategy after 11 September: impact on Europe
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    On 4 February 2002, George Bush presented Congress with the bill for a total, permanent mobilisation of America against terrorism and its consequences: a budget of $2,130 billion, including an additional $48 billion for the Pentagon in October 2002, which is the biggest rise in military funding for 20 years.

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    01April 2002
    From Nice to Laeken - European defence: core documents
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    This is the second volume in our special series of Chaillot Papers presenting core documents on the EU’s security and defence policy. Unlike the first volume, which focused on the whole period from St-Malo to Nice (December 1998 - December 2000), this volume and subsequent ones will recapitulate developments regarding ESDP during the preceding year.

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    01April 2002
    Bigger EU, wider CFSP, stronger ESDP? The view from Central Europe
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    This paper collects the papers delivered by a group of mostly young researchers from the ten Central European candidate countries in response to a grid of common questions submitted to them by the Institute for Security Studies in 2001. The considerations that follow summarize the main results of the project, compare the national views, and put them in a broader political context.

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