The Institute of International Relations is organizing the seminar under the patronage of the President of the Senate of the Czech Republic Milan Štěch. The seminar will deal with the profound changes of Central European security that stem from the inauguration of President Barack Obama, the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidential office.
Institute of International Relations, Prague: Seminar on “The Perspectives of Security: The Czech Republic and Central Europe in the Second Decade of the 21st Century”, 21 June 2012
European Parliament’s study on Space and Security : The Use of Space in the Context of the CSDP, November 2011
Space applications are best suited for dealing with an increasingly expanding concept of security. If, on the one hand, traditional customers are military users, on the other, a wider security and civilian community benefits from space services which are being developed in Europe in line with the evolution of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) civilian and military missions. The study includes a twofold analysis. First, an analysis of CSDP missions and their operational context to be matched with the main space-based applications. Of course, the EU flagship programmes GMES and Galileo are taken into consideration. Second, an overview of the state-of-the-art of the different space programmes in Europe based on their compatibility with CSDP missions is provided. Building on this analysis, conclusions on the use of space in the context CSDP are drawn, focusing on strengths and weaknesses emerged. Finally, some recommendations addressed to the European Parliament are provided.
Authors: Jean-Pierre Darnis and Anna Veclani, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI)
European Parliament’s Study on the Galileo Programme : Management and Financial Lessons Learned for Future Space Systems Paid Out of the EU Budget, October 2011
Galileo is the first large space programme and system managed and owned by the European Union (EU). Its strategic value rests on the political, operational, industrial and technological independence that it will guarantee in the field of global navigation and positioning. Although Galileo represents a priority for the European space policy, more than ten years on the declaration of its feasibility, the programme is still far from completion. Galileo has experienced a slow and problematic development due to concurrent and different factors, among which the failure of the envisaged public-private partnership (PPP) approach to financing, the ever increasing costs, the diverging opinions among EU Member States (MS) and within EU institutions, governance problems, and complex international negotiations still ongoing. Given the new shared competence of the EU in space matters established by the Treaty of Lisbon, which paves the way for new EU space activities, the purpose of the study is first to examine specific and characterizing issues related to the management and financing of the Galileo programme, then to draw lessons learnt for future space systems funded out of the budget of the EU.
Authors: Anna C. Veclani, Jean-Pierre Darnis and Valérie V. Miranda
European Parliament’s Study on the impact of the financial crisis on European defence, May 2011
The financial crisis may pose a risk as well as offer an opportunity for the European defence sector: on the one hand, it sounds plausible that shrinking budgets increase the pressure on member states to cooperate and thus overcome the EU’s problems related to capability development and restructuring of the defence industries and markets. On the other hand, national prerogatives still dominate despite a decade of rhetoric and initiatives for more cooperation and less state in EU defence. If this national focus continues to dominate under current financial circumstances, EU member states run the risk to implement cuts in their Armed Forces in an uncoordinated way. As a result, member states might end up with potentially even bigger capability gaps than they have today and hence even less opportunities to implement the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). This study provides a comprehensive and detailed overview on the ongoing impact of the financial crisis on EU Member States defence spending. In addition, it examines the potential of overcoming the need to cut defence spending by greater cooperation in the framework of the European Union and by drawing upon the innovations in the Lisbon Treaty. The study highlights the need to address the challenges of the economic crisis, a growing number of initiatives by various EU countries as well as the opportunities the Lisbon Treaty offers for pursuing an effective defence sector strategy that goes beyond the current incremental approach. The study has been requested to provide Members of the European Parliament, broader defence policy community and European public a first comprehensive overview of the impact of the financial crisis on European defence and at the EU level, as well as its wider impact on the future of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). It includes recommendations to be developed by the European Parliament and decision makers at the national and EU level in order to address the economic crisis whilst ensuring Europe retains defence capabilities to respond to future security challenges.
Authors: Christian Mölling and Sophie-Charlotte Brune, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik – German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Germany
European Parliament’s Study on Cybersecurity and Cyberpower: Concepts, Conditions and Capabilities for Cooperation for Action within the EU, April 2011
The study analyses policy options for strengthening cybersecurity within the EU and examining potential points-of-entry, including within the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The study provides an overview of the principle concepts and definitions of cyber security and cyber war, drawing attention to the complexity and cross-jurisdictional nature of the field. In addition to examining current cyber threats to the EU, the study also analyses the capacity of the EU to address more sophisticated cyber-attacks within a common framework. In this respect the study offers important insights into the political, operational and structural challenges that need to be addressed in order to protect the EU and its citizens as well and to exercise “cyberpower” on the international stage. The study takes-stock of the existing NATO and EU capabilities related to cyber security and highlights the added value of the EU in applying a diverse range of policies that can help enable it to comprehensively tackle the increasing range of cyber threats. The study has been requested to introduce Members of the European Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Security and Defence (SEDE) to the current issues in cyber security and cyber warfare, as well as to provide a selection of policy recommendations, including within the CSDP context. The study also provides innovative conceptual understanding on what might constitute EU “cyberpower”.
Authors: Alexander Klimburg (Austrian Institute for International Afffairs – OIIP, Austria) and Heli Tirmaa-Klaar (Estonian Foreign Policy Institute, Estonia)
European Parliament’s Study on the Role of Private Security Companies (PSCs) in CSDP Missions and Operations, April 2011
While the hiring of Private Security Companies (PSCs) such as Blackwater by the United States (US) has been the most widely reported and debated, the European Union (EU) and its member states are increasingly relying on private contractors in multilateral operations. Among others, the EU has employed private security guards to protect the EUPOL headquarters in Afghanistan, to secure the premises of the EULEX mission in Kosovo and to guard the EUPOL mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). Due to the growing roles of PSCs in Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operations, the EU and its member states urgently need to consider the possible impact that armed and unarmed security contractors can have on missions and the achievement of mission objectives. This report demonstrates that potential negative effects range from decreased democratic accountability and governmental control to the perceptions of contractor impunity and insecurity among the civilian populations of host states. There is no catch-all solution to these problems, and for many governments the advantages of hiring private security contractors, such as the ability to fill urgent capability and personnel gaps, cost-efficiency and specialist expertise, outweigh the disadvantages. Given the current financial and personnel constraints in Europe, it is likely that the use of PSCs will further increase. It is therefore imperative to develop appropriate mechanisms to address the possible problems of such use before they occur. This report develops five specific recommendations for EU action that would help address risks associated with the increasing use of Private Military and Security Companies.
Authors: Elke Krahmann (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt – PRIF, Germany and University of Bristol, UK) and Cornelius Friesendorf (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main / Peace Research Institute Frankfurt – PRIF/HSFK, Germany)
UI Occasional Paper No 7: The European Security Strategy: Reinvigorate, Revise or Reinvent?
The EU’s European Security Strategy (ESS) offered the first clear expression of the EU’s global security aims. Eight years later, new attention to the ESS is needed and a new ESS may be required. This is the conclusion of a new Occasional Paper published by the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. The paper argues that the timing is right for a discussion on the EU’s global role, against the backdrop of institutional change, shifting geopolitics, and crises in the EU’s neighborhood. Drawing lessons from previous strategic drafting processes, including in the EU and in NATO, the paper argues that a new process should be launched with one of three goals in mind: reinvigorate the existing strategy, revise the ESS, or reinvent a new document with a broader strategic scope. The analysis in this paper offers the foundation for a rigorous debate on the future of the EU’s strategic intentions in the world.
The report is available online here or on the follwing link here.
Elcano Royal Institute: Conference and Round table on “International Security. NATO: A Modern, Flexible and Global Security Alliance”, 7 May 2012
This conference was organized by the Embassy of the United States in Spain and the Elcano Royal Institute. With Philip H. Gordon, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
More information: NATO: A Modern, Flexible and Global Security Alliance.
Seminar on “the Democratic Control of European Foreign, Security and Defence Policy”, IAI/TEPSA , Brussels, 15 November 2010
Instituto Affari Internazionali and TEPSA have organized a seminar on the Democratic Control of European Foreign, Security and Defence Policy on November 15th. Several TEPSA researchers have examined this issue of democratic control on EU’s foreign and security policy more in depth in three papers that have been presented during the seminar. The seminar has dealt with the following topics: The saliency of the issue of the democratic control of European foreign, security and defence policy; The level of democratic parliamentary control: national, transnational or European?; and The Lisbon Treaty and the powers of the European Parliament in the democratic control of CFSP-CSDP.
The report of the seminar is now available here.
Revising the European Security Strategy: Arguments for Discussion
by Stefano Silvestri, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome, May 2008
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