European Union

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Strengthening the Alliance’s European Pillar

Strengthening European defence and the European pillar of the Alliance at the same time has become a matter of urgency. Whatever the outcome of the American elections and whatever the final outcome of the war in Ukraine and the temporary conditions of a ceasefire, the European Union must invest more and better in creating own deterrence and credibility vis-à-vis Putin. It is suggested that the European allies engage in a dialogue with the United States after the recent NATO Summit in Washington to gain their full support for this urgent and much-needed endeavour?

Media/Opinion pieces

Strengthening the Alliance’s European Pillar

Strengthening European defence and the European pillar of the Alliance at the same time has become a matter of urgency. Whatever the outcome of the American elections and whatever the final outcome of the war in Ukraine and the temporary conditions of a ceasefire, the European Union must invest more and better in creating own deterrence and credibility vis-à-vis Putin. It is suggested that the European allies engage in a dialogue with the United States after the recent NATO Summit in Washington to gain their full support for this urgent and much-needed endeavour?

Reports of the Observatories

EU-Africa relations – EuroDefense Observatory report

Even if they may seem to be more intense in the European southern region, the fact is that all the repercussions of the worrying insecurity emerging from the African continent affect all EU members states, without exception, as well as the UK. Europe, and namely the EU, needs to find adequate and constructive responses to them, while simultaneously dealing with equivalent, although different, security challenges on its northeastern border. It is the proper integration of these two realities that today defines the framework of European security.

Publications Media/Opinion pieces

Europe’s strategic autonomy : that obscure object of desire

Words are not sufficient. For too long, the EU has satisfied itself with a diplomacy of words, often moralistic and idealistic, but powerless in front of chaos and atrocities, as we saw in Yugoslavia and in many subsequent instances, with consequences, which Europe is the first to suffer from. The reason is that Member States, rather than integrating defence into a democratic construction where they would have a say, prefer to accept the humiliation and subservience that
are the price to pay for American protection. Doing so, not only do the Union and its Member States earn the contempt of other powers, but they also lose the respect of their own citizens.
The citizens of Europe are tired of the strategic babble of their leaders and the alphabet soup of acronyms they have been throwing around over the years under the pretence of building a “Europe of Defence”. They should stop talking and start acting. If they truly mean it, they should lose no time in creating the much-touted “European Defence Union”, another word for the “common defence” heralded in 1992 in the Maastricht treaty, for which Europe has been waiting for too long. Only then will they finally conquer the strategic autonomy they confusedly aspire to.

Publications Media/Opinion pieces

Afghanistan: Can history tell us what to do? No, but history can certainly tell us what not to do!

The West, and in particular the USA, has a long history of often violent and usually unsuccessful attempts at regime changes. After the Cold War the US-neo-conservative global strategy was based on US supremacy and exceptionalism and its goal was global control. The act of terrorism of 9/11 was a consequence of the role of the USA in the Middle East; blind support for the State of Israel, the first Gulf war, activating Muslim activists to get the Russians out of Afghanistan and support for dictatorial regimes.

Publications Media/Opinion pieces

European Strategic Autonomy: myth or future reality?

The European Commission has underlined several times how strategic autonomy should encompass a variety of sectors, ranging from economy to security. With the election of Joe Biden in the United States the pillar of security and defense, fundamental to European strategic autonomy has received growing attention.

Past activities Activities

Conference: Diplomacy and Foreign Policy: is there a space for the European Union on the world stage?

What do we mean by European diplomacy? What progress do we need to make with community institutions so that we go forward together in a world in movement? What experience, tools, mechanisms and competences already exist within the European Union? What place does Europe have in the international organisations? Without forgetting the importance also of transatlantic relations, these are the type of strategic question which will direct the debate initiated by EuroDéfense-France on 18 October 2021.