European Union Institute for Security Studies

About: European Union Institute for Security Studies is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: European union & Peacekeeping. The organization has 17 authors who have published 35 publications receiving 467 citations. The organization is also known as: EUISS.

Separatist States and Post-Soviet Conflicts

Abstract: Even the most casual glance at a map of the world provides the onlooker with a satisfying sense of completion: the globe has been divided up into legally equal sovereign states, and all territories and peoples fall under the jurisdiction of one or another of these units. The world is a complete matrix of colours and lines that leaves nothing to chance. The blank spots have been filled in. The map of the former Soviet Union conjures a similar satisfaction. Fifteen new states emerged from the Soviet collapse. All of the territory has been divided up. Formal jurisdiction has been claimed across all of the post-Soviet space. At least, so it seems.

EU-NATO Cooperation in Crisis Management: No Turkish Delight for ESDP

Abstract: The issue of how to organize and implement a European security and defence `identity' has been discussed at both the political and the academic level throughout the past decade. Initially, it was basically related only to NATO or, at best, to the NATO-WEU interface. As such, it did not make much progress, in spite of the commitments taken especially in Berlin (1996) and the limited decisions adopted in the WEU framework in 1997. Even at that time, the main bones of contention were the extent to which NATO `assets and capabilities' would be put at the disposal of `European-led' peace support operations and, as a consequence, the role and the rights of those European allies that were not full members of the WEU. With the onset of the ESDP and the de facto withering away of the WEU, the issue has become a bilateral one between the European Union and the Alliance. The controversial points have remained more or less the same, but the political and legal contexts have changed. Ever since, apparently, the main o...

The Absent Friend: EU Foreign Policy and Counter‐Terrorism

Abstract: The article argues that the relative absence of foreign policy from the EU's counter-terrorism efforts is surprising given the nature of the threat. The reasons for this range from the EU's role and approach to counter-terrorism, to the leading role of interior ministers and a focus on the internal threat. External factors and actors also come into play, such as the US ‘global war on terror’ and Nato's role in counter-terrorism. The article explores three core aspects of the external dimension of counter-terrorism policy and argues that areas such as development assistance and democracy promotion have become securitized.

In the shade of Locarno? Why European defence is failing

Abstract: European defence is failing because of the profusion and confusion of strategic concepts in Europe today. This article draws parallels with the Europe of the interwar years when strategic concepts were similarly confused. At the time a complex interplay between the traditional balance of power approach to security and the collective security, disarmament and international arbitration enshrined in the Treaty of Versailles resulted in strategic paralysis. The nadir of this failed strategic concept was the Treaty of Locarno in 1925 that, by endeavouring to keep all states happy at all times, simply prevented the creation of an effective security and defence mechanism. The rest is history. While the strategic environment of the first decade of the twenty–first century is undoubtedly different to that of the second decade of the twentieth, the need to satisfy the domestic political needs of all European powers, great and small, activist and post–neutral is producing a similar effect. Europe today has a security system that seems to bear little or no relation to the threats that are emerging. It is time, therefore, that Europe’s Great Powers, Britain, France and Germany reasserted their political authority and bring an end to the political correctness that has so undermined European defence. Given the time that such endeavours normally take, and the nature and scope of emerging threats, the time for such action is now. Europe’s Great Powers cannot again afford to be late and unprepared for the conflicts that lie ahead.

The Reluctant Peacekeeper: France and the Use of Force in Peace Operations

Abstract: The French doctrine towards peace operations has, over the last two decades, reflected the ambivalence of France’s position, stretched between on the one hand a military culture that places the use of force at the centre of strategy and on the other hand multidimensional operations that by their nature integrate a large range of activities. As a consequence France has evolved as a ‘reluctant peacekeeper’: while it has been significantly involved in peace operations since the end of the Cold War, the military has never felt comfortable with the peacekeeping concept, seen as a dilution of their primary function of fighting wars. This tension has shaped both doctrinal development and operations. Twenty years after the French engagement in former Yugoslavia, lessons have been learnt, and policy-makers have become aware of the evolution of conflict management and the subsequent necessity to integrate the military dimension into a broader framework. Yet France’s policy is still shaped by a certain avers...