A stable Libya would close the door to Daesh. CEPS Policy Brief No. 340, March 2016

Since the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011, everything has seemed to conspire against the transition process in Libya. The idea of a stabilisation force has met political resistance in most European countries, because there is little appetite for long-term interventions that carry a high risk of casualties. This author argues that, among other initiatives, ground forces are nevertheless a necessary component of stabilisation in this fragile country. He makes four recommendations to guide the engagement of external actors

European security after the Paris attacks. CEPS Commentary, 24 November 2015

The November 13th terrorist attacks in Paris have prompted the European Union to activate the mutual assistance clause contained in Art. 42.7 of the EU Treaty. Member states are now entering the unchartered territory of large-scale conflict: will they join a French-led coalition of the willing, or is the military intervention against Daesh being Europeanised? This Commentary explores implications of the Paris attacks on European security and recommends coordinated and comprehensive responses to be taken within the EU framework

EU Naval Force EUNAVFOR MED sets sail in troubled waters. CEPS Commentary, 26 June 2015

Apprehending pirates in the Indian Ocean is one thing. Defeating the networks through which smugglers traffic migrants through North Africa is quite another. The European Union’s new naval force deployment in the Mediterranean - EUNAVFOR MED - drew criticism from international partners and the general public alike when plans for a “boat-sinking” operation were unveiled, raising fears about unacceptable levels of violence and collateral damage; a European version of Mexico’s drug war. Yet the problems of EUNAVFOR MED lie less in clumsy public diplomacy than in the perilous mismatch between its stated objectives and the absence of a clear strategy and mandate, and this creates both operational and political risks for member states. Phase 1 of the operation: surveillance and assessment, has begun with no legal mandate to carry out the crucial phases 2 and 3: seek and destroy, whose military planning and outcomes are undetermined. Despite these limitations, the naval force could nevertheless mark a turning point in the EU’s security narrative, because it means that the Union is finally addressing the threats to security and the humanitarian tragedies in its southern neighbourhood

More Union in European Defence. CEPS Task Force Report, 26 February 2015

Years of uncoordinated cuts in defence spending have eroded the EU’s role as a security actor in what is now a multipolar world. This CEPS Task Force report aims to provide member states and the EU institutions with the narrative to strengthen defence cooperation in the EU, in the face of numerous emergencies in the EU’s strategic neighbourhood and ever-present security threats. The report is a record of the deliberations over several months between high-level experts in the field of European security and defence, who conclude that the Treaty of Lisbon demands and permits a great deal more in terms of our common security and defence activities. And that member states could achieve much more value for money than the €190 billion that they spend to keep up 28 national armies, comprising roughly 1.5 million service personnel. This report suggests policy actions to further the EU’s strategic, institutional, capabilities, and resources cooperation in the field of defence. Ultimately, in the view of the Task Force experts, further integration should amount to a European Defence Union

More Union in European Defence. CEPS Task Force Report, 26 February 2015

Years of uncoordinated cuts in defence spending have eroded the EU’s role as a security actor in what is now a multipolar world. This CEPS Task Force report aims to provide member states and the EU institutions with the narrative to strengthen defence cooperation in the EU, in the face of numerous emergencies in the EU’s strategic neighbourhood and ever-present security threats. The report is a record of the deliberations over several months between high-level experts in the field of European security and defence, who conclude that the Treaty of Lisbon demands and permits a great deal more in terms of our common security and defence activities. And that member states could achieve much more value for money than the €190 billion that they spend to keep up 28 national armies, comprising roughly 1.5 million service personnel. This report suggests policy actions to further the EU’s strategic, institutional, capabilities, and resources cooperation in the field of defence. Ultimately, in the view of the Task Force experts, further integration should amount to a European Defence Union

L’Italie et les euromissiles : crise et relance de l’intérêt national

Cet article analyse la position italienne dans l’adoption et l’application de la double décision de l’OTAN. Les euromissiles représentent un tournant historique pour la politique étrangère italienne. Le début de la crise a montré le caractère ambigu de cette politique, partagée entre l’intérêt national et la stabilité interne. Cependant, ce « test de l’atlantisme » a été fondamental, car il a permis de relancer une action extérieure plus dynamique et stratégique. L’évolution de l’outil militaire italien à partir des euromissiles et de la réorientation de la posture stratégique dans la Méditerranée marque encore la situation actuelle. Ainsi, la façon dont la classe politique italienne conçoit le rôle de l’Italie dans l’affrontement Est-Ouest, et plus en général dans le monde, sort transformée de la crise. L’Italie se découvre « puissance moyenne », qui défend de façon assez pragmatique ses intérêts nationaux méditerranéens et européens par le biais de la politique transatlantique.This article analyzes Italy’s role in the adoption and implementation of NATO’s double-track decision. The Euromissiles crisis represents a watershed in Italy’s foreign policy. On the one hand, the beginning of the crisis shows the ambiguous nature of a foreign policy inhibited by internal stability concerns and driven by the pursuit of national interest. On the other, the “Atlantic test” triggered a new phase for Italy’s role in the world. The effects on the reform of the Italian armed forces and the reorientation of its strategic position towards the Mediterranean are still relevant today. Italy rediscovered its role as a “middle power” that rather pragmatically promotes its Mediterranean and European interests through transatlantic means

When knowledge meets practice: learning communities and the EU’s common security and defence policy

This thesis explores the role of learning communities in the evolution of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). It engages the academic debate on institutional learning and the "practice turn" in IR to shed light on the factors leading the EU to learn by policy failure, as well as by ten years of practice in crisis management. Specifically, the work investigates the role of the knowledge and practice-based communities that shaped the consensus towards the comprehensive approach, with a strong emphasis on civilian means. Ideational factors, as opposed to material ones, are critical in understanding why the EU has developed a "soft" provider of security, in spite of the St Malo commitment to develop hard security capabilities. In the absence of a direct threat, EU member states’ preferences towards CSDP were driven by a set of new ideas, which in turn resulted from an emerging international agenda advocating the development of non-military crisis management approaches and tools. Through a critical appraisal of the "practice turn" and its application to the study of EU security and defence, the thesis sheds additional light on the overlap between knowledge and practice, which bears relevance for the research agenda on learning communities and norm diffusion. The empirical analysis makes an evidence-based reconstruction of the rise and evolution of civilian crisis management (CCM) and security sector reform (SSR). The comparison between the two case studies assesses the extent to which, at critical junctures, ideational factors influenced security policies. CCM and SSR, in fact, shared a similar learning process, yet the former had a much deeper impact on the shape and activities of the CSDP than the latter. To account for such variation in outcomes, it is argued that the emergence of "learning by doing" shaped CCM evolution. On the contrary, the introduction of SSR by knowledge-based communities failed to produce a common practice. Therefore, when policy innovation is supported by the re-elaboration of practices, the ideas diffused by learning communities are more persuasive and impactful on policy-making

L’Italie et les euromissiles : crise et relance de l’intérêt national

Cet article analyse la position italienne dans l’adoption et l’application de la double décision de l’OTAN. Les euromissiles représentent un tournant historique pour la politique étrangère italienne. Le début de la crise a montré le caractère ambigu de cette politique, partagée entre l’intérêt national et la stabilité interne. Cependant, ce « test de l’atlantisme » a été fondamental, car il a permis de relancer une action extérieure plus dynamique et stratégique. L’évolution de l’outil militaire italien à partir des euromissiles et de la réorientation de la posture stratégique dans la Méditerranée marque encore la situation actuelle. Ainsi, la façon dont la classe politique italienne conçoit le rôle de l’Italie dans l’affrontement Est-Ouest, et plus en général dans le monde, sort transformée de la crise. L’Italie se découvre « puissance moyenne », qui défend de façon assez pragmatique ses intérêts nationaux méditerranéens et européens par le biais de la politique transatlantique.This article analyzes Italy’s role in the adoption and implementation of NATO’s double-track decision. The Euromissiles crisis represents a watershed in Italy’s foreign policy. On the one hand, the beginning of the crisis shows the ambiguous nature of a foreign policy inhibited by internal stability concerns and driven by the pursuit of national interest. On the other, the “Atlantic test” triggered a new phase for Italy’s role in the world. The effects on the reform of the Italian armed forces and the reorientation of its strategic position towards the Mediterranean are still relevant today. Italy rediscovered its role as a “middle power” that rather pragmatically promotes its Mediterranean and European interests through transatlantic means

Evolution through learning? Epistemic communities and the emergence of Security Sector Reform (SSR) in European security cooperation

Why and how do security institutions evolve? How is it that the European Union security architecture has changed so rapidly over the past ten years, without member states agreeing on a common vision of European integration in this field? This paper engages the current debate on the evolution of the European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) by investigating the role of knowledge and ideas in influencing further European integration. Structural and functional explanations – whether realist or liberal – are underdetermining, since they don’t fully account for the process of almost permanent expansion and reform that institutions and procedures underpinning CSDP have undergone over the last ten years. I argue that these theories need to be complemented by an approach emphasizing the role of “knowledge” as a key intervening variable between structure and agency. Accordingly, my research demonstrates that transnational networks of experts have fostered institutional and policy learning by promoting new principled and causal beliefs, leading to new values and strategic prescriptions. From an empirical standpoint, this research focuses on the development of a comprehensive approach to security, and specifically it analyzes the introduction of Security Sector Reform (SSR) principles and practices in the EU security policymaking. Since these new precepts have tremendously impacted on the current shape and activities of CSDP, locating their intellectual cradle and understanding how these norms were diffused its pivotal to gain a clearer idea of the institutions that handles security matters in today’s Europe. While structural conditions after the end of the Cold War underpin the new strategic prescription of “comprehensive approach” and “security-development nexus”, the way communities of experts responded to these conditions and redefined EU security interests is essential to explain change at the institutional and policy levels

A new paradigm for managing crises after Covid-19

Complexidade, Entropia, Incerteza, Intermitência, Exponencialidade. Eis alguns conceitos que têm sido utilizados para caracterizar a crise que vivemos. Neste IDN Brief quisemos perceber em que medida esta situação desafia o atual paradigma da Gestão de Crises a nível internacional, europeu e nacional. Reunimos perspetivas variadas sobre o papel e desempenho dos sistemas de planeamento civil e de emergência e de proteção civil, a coordenação entre atores, o lugar dos cidadãos e da sociedade civil, os ajustamentos necessários para desenvolver resiliência e as lições que se vislumbram para o futuro.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio