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Transnational challenges

There is a growing overlap between the EU’s internal and external security problems. Terrorism, organised crime and unregulated migration not only pose a threat to European internal security, but also have a serious impact on the stability of Europe’s immediate neighbourhood. Very often, they find their roots in conflicts and instability further abroad in Africa or Asia.

For some time, the European Union has been active in international debates on the governance of these challenges, and has created new policy instruments of its own. Already in the early 1990s, the EU successfully linked its home-affairs priorities with its Common Foreign and Security Policy. The 2015 migration crisis showed the limits of that approach, and has sparked a new wave of reforms.

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  • Download Brief
    20May 2020
    China has sought to demonstrate that its authoritarian political system has been more efficient at dealing with the coronavirus crisis than Western liberal democratic systems. This Brief examines the validity of this hypothesis, and concludes that predispositional factors – notably the demographic and age profile of a country – as well as whether a state had been previously exposed to a pandemic or not, were more important in shaping the authorities’ response than the political system in place.
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    30April 2020
    In the three decades after the Cold War, the perception of ‘Arctic exceptionalism’, the sense that the Arctic region is immune from broader geopolitical tensions, prevailed. However, this notion is currently being challenged: climate change is accelerating the opening of new maritime trade routes and exploitation of natural resources in the region, while great power competition between the US, Russia and China in the Arctic is intensifying, changing regional power dynamics.
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    17April 2020
    The complex nature of cyber conflicts makes it difficult to design effective, targeted conflict prevention instruments. Yet existing approaches to prevent conflict in cyberspace have, so far, brought about very little change in state behaviour. How might the EU lead the way in preventing conflicts from escalating or breaking out?
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    17March 2020
    In the sanctions practice of the EU, human rights motivations feature prominently, reflecting their centrality to the Union’s foreign policy. This Brief discusses plans to create a new EU sanctions regime addressing gross human rights violations. It examines the various challenges surrounding the initiative and its implementation, and argues that the way forward could be to disaggregate the proposed sanctions regimes into two separate strands: one dealing with breaches of international humanitarian law and a second addressing human rights abuses linked to large-scale transnational corruption.
  • Close up of US flag - Photo by Luke Michael on Unsplash
    04March 2020

    On 4 March 2020, Clara Portela organised a closed-door workshop in Brussels on 'Building EU resilience against the extraterritorial effects of U.S. sanctions'. The workshop brought together experts on sanctions from various disciplines with officials from Member States and EU institutions.

  • Participants at the EUISS Canada Track 1.5 cyber meeting
    19February 2020

    The EUISS, Global Affairs Canada, EEAS and the CIGI hosted a cyber workshop in Brussels’.

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    24January 2020
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    According to a famous science fiction film, the future is what you make of it. This Chaillot Paper takes this quote from Back to the Future to heart, proposing 14 different portraits of the future for the year 2024.

  • Photo of EUISS podcast recording studio
    09January 2020

    The EUISS ‘What if’ podcast is a foreign policy foresight conversation: it looks at fictional scenarios that could happen between now and the end of 2021.

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    16December 2019
    Maritime security is one of the fundamental strategic interests of the European Union. This Brief focuses on the EU’s ambition to become a maritime security provider in the Indo-Pacific region and explores how might it go about accomplishing this. It shows how a more proactive European involvement in maritime security has the potential to boost ties with Asian countries, promote the Union’s foreign and security objectives in the region and enhance its strategic profile globally.
  • 02December 2019

    The EUISS organised a workshop in Paris to discuss the challenges related to conceptualising, measuring and strengthening local governance institutions.

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    22February 2017

    Since the 1990s, the EU's gender mainstreaming strategy has spread to its foreign policy, including its CSDP. What concrete steps has it taken to promote women in the field of peace and security?

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    08February 2017

    In a marked shift from previous policies, many advanced economies are creating labour market integration initiatives for refugees. This Brief argues that although this might seem a shortcut to a more progressive strategy, it risks undermining the integrity of refugee policy and repeating the mistakes of the 1990s.

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    10November 2016

    Because of the intertwining of internal and external security matters, the EU’s model of dealing with crisis is being challenged. This Brief looks at how integrating different approaches and distinct practises across the EU may come to represent the key change for policymakers.

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    10November 2016

    Civilian CSDP missions were downsized in 2016, paradoxically at a time when security needs are growing – with threats largely of a non-military nature. This Brief shows how these changes call for renewed investment in civilian CSDP so that it can find its place in the evolving global crisis management architecture.

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    03November 2016

    As they enter a period of critical elections, the US and European countries are being confronted by a series of threats from cyberspace. Electronic voting infrastructure and networks of political groups have recorded repeated intrusion, while strategic leaks of compromising documents have sought to influence public opinion.

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    21October 2016

    This Brief looks at the quite remarkable extent to which criminal justice cooperation has deepened – both within Europe and in the EU’s external relations. What mechanisms are in place to facilitate cooperation and avoid clashes in this highly sensitive policy area?

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    21October 2016

    The EU previously envisaged expanding its border-free travel area to create a single space across its neighbouring regions. Now it is witnessing the reappearance of geopolitical blocs and zones. What is the EU doing in the face of the need for a new border diplomacy?

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    14October 2016

    This Brief examines the overlooked role of the women in the organisation, and argues they are every bit as dangerous as their male counterparts. But how should European security forces address this issue?

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    05October 2016

    Migrant groups are influential actors in the international arena. Globally, diaspora communities and governments alike are capitalising on this state of affairs, as demonstrated by the fact that diaspora lobbying is on the rise and governments are seeking to instrumentalise their expatriates. This Alert looks at how the EU finds itself increasingly exposed to foreign states’ interference through its migrant/diaspora communities.

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    05October 2016

    Migrant groups and host communities have developed a number of smart technology apps aimed at providing new arrivals with information on housing, education and employment opportunities. This Alert looks at how EU authorities can utilise these new technologies to help migrants, while exploring the associated dilemmas.

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  • 30September 2014

    This Colloquium, coorganised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the EUISS on 30 September in Brussels, focused on the theme of women and war and the challenges for the EU, humanitarian organisations and other concerned actors in this space.

  • 23May 2014

    On 23 May, the EU Institute for Security Studies hosted a double event in Brussels ‘Crisis management 2014: the EU record’ in order to present both its ‘Yearbook of European Security: YES 2014’ and the EUISS/EEAS book ‘Crisis Rooms: towards a global network?’

  • 10April 2014

    The EUISS hosted a seminar on European energy security on Thursday 10 April in Brussels in order to facilitate a free exchange of ideas on the energy security dimension of EU energy policy and introduce the latest EUISS energy-related report.

  • 13March 2014

    To stimulate the debate on cyber capacity building and the impact it has on social and economic development worldwide, the EUISS has hosted a major conference in Paris with participants coming from international and regional organisations, governments, the private sector, and civil society.

  • 19November 2013

    A closed expert meeting was held on 19 November 2013 in Brussels as part of the EUISS Task Force’s activities on cyber security. Representatives from EU institutions, international organisations, research institutes as well as the private sector debated issues such as capacity building, the digital economy and cybercrime.

  • 10September 2012

    This workshop was an in-depth brainstorming session on the future of the Chemical Weapons Convention and it took place in Brussels with officials from EU member states and candidate countries.

  • 13September 2010

    This workshop, organised in partnership with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the Egmont Institute of Belgium, discussed challenges to the nuclear weapons control regime and opportunities and options for nuclear disarmament.

  • 30May 2007

    This conference, jointly organised with the German Presidency and the Council of the European Union, examined the challenges posed by missile proliferation and focused on the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC).

  • 25September 2006

    The EUISS held a conference on the Biological and Toxins Weapon Convention (BTWC) in order to examine the challenges associated with the implementation of the BTWC and possible implementation assistance requirements.

  • 01May 2005

    Convened at the request of the HR’s Personal Representative for the non-proliferation of WMD, Annalisa Giannella, the seminar examined the main challenges for the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference and explored possible ways to reach a common EU position.

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