EUISS Yearbook of European Security 2018

The EUISS Yearbook of European Security (YES) 2018 is the Institute’s annual publication compiling key information and data related to the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) in 2017. YES 2018 opens with a preface by Federica Mogherini, High Representative for the Union’s Foreign and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP). While the HR/VP recognises that ‘the very idea of a rules-based international order is questioned’, the EU ‘has emerged as a reliable force for diplomacy, dialogue and multilateralism’. YES 2018 provides an account of the EU’s engagement with the world through evidence-based, data-rich chapters that are designed to inform policymakers and officials, experts and academics and think tank representatives about the progress made by the EU and the challenges it faced in 2017.

All of the familiar features of the YES are present in this edition including details about the organisational aspects of the European External Action Service (EEAS), EU partners, restrictive measures, geographic instruments, CSDP missions and operations, EU agencies and bodies and the European Defence Technological and Industrial Base. However, this year’s version of the Yearbook includes new features including: an overview of the work programmes of the presidencies of the Council of the EU as they relate to foreign, security and defence policy; narratives of the EU’s engagement with select countries and regions in its southern and eastern neighbourhoods and the wider world; an overview of new EU defence initiatives such as Permanent Structured Cooperation; and a new chapter on European security that focuses on the internal-external nexus and cybersecurity. Furthermore, to improve the readability of the 2018 Yearbook there are a host of informative data visualisations and for the first time the Yearbook includes a statistical annex for data and an index for reference purposes.