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Transnational challenges

There is a growing overlap between the EU’s internal and external security problems. Terrorism, organised crime and unregulated migration not only pose a threat to European internal security, but also have a serious impact on the stability of Europe’s immediate neighbourhood. Very often, they find their roots in conflicts and instability further abroad in Africa or Asia.

For some time, the European Union has been active in international debates on the governance of these challenges, and has created new policy instruments of its own. Already in the early 1990s, the EU successfully linked its home-affairs priorities with its Common Foreign and Security Policy. The 2015 migration crisis showed the limits of that approach, and has sparked a new wave of reforms.

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    17November 2015
    After Paris: why ISIL is (also) a cult
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    13November 2015
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    13November 2015
    Migration: the new ‘push’ and ‘pull’ dynamics
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    28October 2015
    Hybrid operations: lessons from the past
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    22October 2015
    Turkey’s refugee politics
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    This Alert takes a look at the successes and failures of Turkish refugee policy. What domestic factors are driving the debate in Ankara? And what do Turkish policymakers want and expect from the EU?

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    30September 2015
    UNSC Resolution 1325 fifteen years on
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    October 2015 will mark the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women and conflicts. This Brief shows how UNSCR 1325 has contributed to an increased recognition of the importance of gender issues and of women’s role in the EU’s external policies, and examines the Union’s efforts to incorporate the values of the Resolution into its foreign policy toolkit.

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    30September 2015
    Operation Sophia: tackling the refugee crisis with military means
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    07September 2015
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    24July 2015
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    09July 2015
    Sanctions against North Korea: a tricky dilemma
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    03March 2008
    Missile Defence in Europe: the political and security dimensions
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    The debate over missile defence in Europe is likely to remain on the political agenda for the foreseeable future as discussions evolve on both sides of the Atlantic. This policy brief provides basic background information on missile defence and highlights some of the principal political and security aspects associated with missile defence in Europe.

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    01November 2006
    Enforcing non-proliferation. The European Union and the 2006 BTWC Review Conference
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    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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    19October 2006
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    01October 2005
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    If any Europeans observing the 9/11 atrocities in the United States had comforted themselves with the belief that Europe was immune from such attacks, this illusion was tragically shattered by the bombings in Madrid (2004) and London (2005) which resulted in the slaughter of many civilians.

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    01September 2005
    Disasters, Diseases, Disruptions: a new D-drive for the EU
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    The European Security Strategy (ESS) issued by the EU in December 2003 devoted its first chapter to what it called ‘global challenges’. Most of those challenges –poverty, infectious disease, drought and famine, violent conflict – affect the Europe of today only indirectly and/or moderately. By contrast, some of them – global warming, infrastructural disruptions, migration flows – may affect European societies in a much more dramatic fashion in the future.

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    01April 2005
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    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.

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    01March 2005
    Information security: a new challenge for the EU
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    The Internet has opened a new area of communication and information, enabling us to transfer enormous amounts of digital data for a great variety of applications within fractions of a second around the globe. It is therefore no surprise that it has become, within only a few years, the spinal column of modern societies. Citizens, research institutions, private business, NGOs, political parties and public services all increasingly depend in their daily life and work on interlinked information systems and networks.

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    01July 2004
    Protecting the European homeland — the CBR dimension
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    The Sarin attacks carried out by the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo in Matsumoto and Tokyo highlighted the threat posed by non-state actors equipped with non-conventional weapons. Although the number of casualties was limited, the attack signalled a cause for concern.

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