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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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    01July 2005
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    Attention, danger!

    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.

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    01May 2005
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    Defence procurement in the European Union

    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.

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    01May 2005
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    L'Union et l'Afrique subsaharienne : quel partenariat ?

    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.

  • 01May 2005
    The EU and the NPT 2005 Review Conference

    Convened at the request of the HR’s Personal Representative for the non-proliferation of WMD, Annalisa Giannella, the seminar examined the main challenges for the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference and explored possible ways to reach a common EU position.

  • 22April 2005
    Islam in Europe and US security

    The EUISS co-sponsored a Conference on Democracy and Global Islam organised by the Center on Institutions and Governance based at UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies. The conference was the first of its kind to discuss the impact of globalising Islam on Europe's growing Muslim population with regard to US security.

  • 07April 2005
    The EU's Security Agenda and the Western Balkans

    This seminar was organised by the G17 Institute with the assistance of EUISS in Belgrade and sought to introduce Serbian and Montenegrin policy makers, academic experts and journalists to the European Security and Defence Policy and the EU’s Security Strategy.

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

    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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    01April 2005
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    The democratic legitimacy of European Security and Defence Policy

    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.

  • 07March 2005
    The ESDP contribution to the fight against terrorism

    On 7 March 2005, the EUISS organised a seminar in collaboration with the Luxembourg Presidency and the Council of the European Union in order to identify potential ESDP contributions to the fight against terrorism.

  • 19February 2005
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    Bush in Europe II

    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.

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  • 01September 2001
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    11 Septembre : impact sur la PESD

    Il est bien évidemment difficile de tirer des conclusions définitives sur l’impact des attentats du 11 septembre. Toutefois, s’agissant de la PESD, trois séries d’effets sont envisageables, étant entendu qu’ils peuvent être parfois contradictoires entre eux et selon que l’analyse se place sur le court ou le long terme

  • 01September 2001
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    Enlargement and European security after 11 September

    What consequences may the terrorist acts of 11 September have for EU enlargement? Will they facilitate it or make it more complicated? And what is likely to be their overall impact on pan-European security?

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    02July 2001
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    Nuclear weapons: a new Great Debate

    In nuclear matters more than in any other political area, perceptions have the force of law. The most concrete nuclear technology would count for little without the extremely sophisticated theories of uncertainty that form the basis of any nuclear deterrence strategy. Yet for the last few years both the technological and intellectual worlds of deterrence, as mankind has known it since 1945, have been in turmoil on all continents.

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    02May 2001
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    From St-Malo to Nice: European defence: core documents

    In the two years between St-Malo and Nice, the character of the European Union changed. What was previously unthinkable ‘at Fifteen’ became an objective agreed by all member states: the inclusion in the Union’s legitimate competencies of a common security and defence policy, in other words its acquisition of strategic responsibility in post-Cold War crisis management.

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    01May 2001
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    Le MTCR face à la proliferation des missiles

    Le Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) est à l’heure actuelle le seul dispositif politico-juridique international de lutte contre la prolifération des missiles. Il a été mis sur pied en 1987 par les 7 pays les plus industrialisés, et regroupe aujourd’hui 33 Etats.

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    01May 2001
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    Coherence for security policy: debates - cases- assessments

    This Occasional Paper stems from a series of meetings of an ISS Task Force on ‘The Coherence of CFSP’ held in Paris between October 2000 and April 2001. Task Forces are small groups of experts and officials from member States, international bodies and think tanks that convene periodically to discuss a given topic or policy area. They usually include a ‘core group’ of members and other participants that join in according to the specific focus of each meeting.

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    01May 2001
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    A common European export policy for defence and dual-use items?

    In Europe, arms and dual-use exports raise complex questions. They fall between two policy spheres that are organised in a distinctly contrasting manner. On the one hand, they are an intrinsic part of commercial policy that lies within the exclusive competence of the European Community (EC). On the other hand, they come under the aegis of security and defence policy, a jealously guarded area of responsibility of the EU member states.

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    02March 2001
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    Military intervention and the European Union

    The Kosovo crisis marked a turning point in the development of the international system, not because the West was in any way improper in freeing itself from the constraints of realpolitik and UN legitimacy, but because it demonstrated the limits of those constraints.

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    01March 2001
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    Realigning Neutrality? - Irish Defence Policy and the EU

    Daniel Keohane explores the changing context of Irish defence policy in light of the rapid development of the CESDP. He touches on policy considerations germane to all EU member-states with a tradition of neutrality who are having to adjust to a new role in a changing world. Keohane also uses defence policy as a metaphor for the changing internal debate at a time when a strong and polemical discourse is underway about Ireland’s role in the wider world.

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    01February 2001
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    Cold War dinosaurs or hi-tech arms providers? The West European land armaments industry at the turn of the millennium

    With considerable delay in comparison to aerospace and defense electronics, a restructuring process is occurring in Europe’s land armaments sector. National consolidation in the big arms producing countries is paralleled by an increasing number of transnational link-ups.

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