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The EU increasingly makes use of crisis scenarios to forecast the future and identify capability gaps. This Brief shows how simulations and exercises can only add value to preparedness efforts when they are but one element of a wider crisis response architecture.

In light of rising tensions between Washington and the EU over defence markets, this Brief looks at the asymmetry between US and European defence markets. It examines the web of regulations and laws which effectively provides the US government with the discretionary power to control its defence market and technologies.

This Brief demonstrates how a ‘pivot’ to conflict prevention in foreign assistance to Mozambique is needed, adjusting international donors’ support towards more targeted conflict-prevention objectives, and balancing the need for conflict sensitivity with the imperative of effective relief and recovery interventions in the areas hit by the cyclone. But it is important to realise that the ‘prevention window’ will not remain open indefinitely, and timely action is therefore of the essence.

This Brief explores the ways the international community has responded to the new developments to preserve and strengthen the norm against CW use. It first offers a short historical overview of chemical warfare, followed by a review of resurgent use of toxic agents. It next introduces the CWC. A discussion of the challenges the new-found utility of such agents pose to the convention concludes the Brief.