The current Iraqi crisis led the Institute to convene urgently a meeting between experts and representatives to the Political and Security Committee. The purpose of the seminar was better to understand the depth and the historic nature of the crisis. The discussion was organised in three sessions: why Iraq is a divisive issue, what implications for CFSP/ESDP and the future of Europe, and what implications for transatlantic relations.
Depuis 1999, l’Union européenne (UE) développe sa capacité globale (militaire et non militaire) de gestion des crises dans le cadre de la Politique européenne de Sécurité et de Défense (PESD). La « déclaration d’opérationnalité de la PESD », adoptée lors du Conseil de Laeken, constitue un pas important de ce développement.
Lancé lors d’une réunion des ministres des affaires étrangères, le Pacte de stabilité a vu le jour en juin 1999. Cette nouvelle structure a pour ambition d’accompagner les Balkans pendant la période transitoire précédant leur intégration dans les structures euro-atlantiques.
Depending on the moment, it is not uncommon to note two coexistent views of Europe’s political future. The first foresees a disintegration of the Union as an international actor, while the other sees it becoming more resilient and dynamic.
The idea behind this transatlantic book predates the intense transatlantic exchanges that took place prior to the war in Iraq in early 2003. The run-up to the passage of UN Resolution 1441 in November 2002 provided clear indications that Euro-American relations were about to enter previously uncharted territory.
Vaclav Havel, the retiring Czech President and wise man of Central Europe, used to say that it took ten years to bring down communism in Poland, one year in Hungary, one month in East Germany and one week in (then) Czechoslovakia. It has taken a further decade to bring almost all of his Central Europe into the Western security communities: nothing much in historical terms, though much more so in psychological terms.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is one of the major security threats facing Europe today. However, a genuine European assessment of the threat is still lacking. This prompted the EUISS to invite a group of European experts and officials to present their analysis of current trends in missile-, nuclear-, biological- and chemical proliferation.
Most Americans see the regime of Saddam Hussein as a major threat to regional and international security that must be thwarted, even if that means threatening or even using military force. If Saddam were to acquire nuclear weapons, they fear, he would seek to use them to dominate the Middle East, possibly invading his neighbours as he has in the past and perhaps deterring the United States from stopping him.
UNSC Resolution 1441 has given the Iraqi regime a last opportunity to abandon any WMD programmes. If Iraq does not comply fully with the resolution or if inspections show that Iraq is indeed hiding WMD, the Security Council will have to consider the situation and decide what measures must be taken to maintain international peace and security.
Bearing in mind that the Iraqi issue is and will remain high on the European and transatlantic agendas, the EU Institute for Security Studies has decided to examine it thoroughly through a series of publications and activities. The following texts are so far available