Intelligence support for the EU’s foreign and security policy has developed from being a small cubicle within Javier Solana’s office into dedicated all-source intelligence units. But what challenges still exist in European intelligence cooperation, and what can be done to bolster it further?
The EU has embarked on a strategy of upgrading its justice and home affairs agencies in order to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of its foreign and internal security policies. What steps have been taken? And what more can realistically be done?
‘...today’s security environment simply has no precedent. The West faces an interconnected web of global and regional threats, whose sheer volume and complexity are overwhelming.’
‘While it is true that the EU’s strength lies in its values which have ensured prosperity and peace within its borders and beyond for the last 60 years, these values should not remain disconnected from interests.’
‘There is no single blueprint for building a new order in Middle Eastern states. But to succeed, the process will need to be gradual and organic.’
‘...the exercise in crafting the EUGS must pay as much attention to the internal divisions as it does external threats. After all, foreign policy is an extension of domestic politics.’
2015 saw Russia, Saudi Arabia and China invest heavily in their militaries, while Europeans have largely reversed long-standing defence budget cuts, too. Increases in defence spending have, however, had very different implications for the military activities of the respective regional powers.
This Alert takes a look at the Kremlin’s hatchet man in Chechnya. What do his recent provocations reveal about his relationship with the Kremlin? And what do they say about the man himself?
As part of the outreach and consultation process for the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS), the EUISS and the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the EU organised a conference on 26 February 2016 to assess the current multilateral approaches to Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) in the Horn of Africa in Brussels.
‘The G7, which has been said to be losing relevance due to the emergence of the G20, should be reinvigorated with an expanded agenda including political, as well as economic issues.’