The MMF Programme is a referencefor future defence armament cooperation photo: © MMU by Joachim Weidmann, OCCAR-EA, MMF Programme Manager and Coordinator; Angel Saiz-Padilla, NSPA, MMF Principal Coordinator Officer, and Dion Polman, EDA, Project Officer Aviation, Bonn/Brussels European Nations face since long an unpredictable strategic situation. New scenarios require new capabilities in growing numbers, whilst…
by Dr Hans Christoph Atzpodien,Managing Director of the Federation of German Security and Defence Industries e.V. (BDSV), Berlin In the current European debate, our security requirements and need to defend ourselves are not commonly acknowledged as indispensable prerequisites for sustainability. Part of the reason for this is that, among the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals,…
by Ralph Thiele, President of EuroDefense Germany and Chairman of the Political-Military Society, Berlin The world is in the midst of a tectonic shift. Global competition for security architectures, trade and investment regimes and leadership in new technologies is gathering pace. Strategic goals are also being pursued through the threat and use of open military force.…
by Ricardo Dias da Costa, Professor of Strategy and Military Operations at the PortugueseMilitary University Institute (IUM), Lisbon The use of expressions such as the “sovereignty” or “strategic autonomy” of Europe is relatively recurrent among politicians and academics, although it is not consensual. Nevertheless, with the approval of the “Strategic Compass” and for Europe’s sovereignty…
by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris V ladimir Putin has achieved the impossible: in a few days, his war against Ukraine has made the European Union (EU)politically move further than it has done in more than seven decades of peaceful economic and financial development. In those few days, a true “spirit of defence” has been created. …
by Jean Dufourcq, Counter Admiral (ret), co-founder of Vigie, synthèse stratégique,Paris The Russian aggression in Ukraine, a human tragedy of a bygone era, harks back to the European wars of the 20th century. It bears all the marks of Russian brutality, strategic frustration and a radical political project that has ended badly. Russia is gambling…
by Professor Hideshi Tokuchi, President of the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS) and Indo-Pacific correspondent of this magazine, Tokyo R ussia’s invasion of Ukraine is a blatant violation of established international law, swaying the rules-based international order. As it is an outright challenge to the global order, it will affect the stability and…
by Dr Klaus Wittmann, Brigadier General (ret), Lecturer in contemporary history at Potsdam University, Berlin C ertainly, the invasion on 24th February 2022, long prepared by the ever tighter military encirclement of Ukraine, marked the culmination of the gradually deteriorating relationship between Russia and the West. But this development had several “watershed moments”. Despite the…
by Jean-Paul Paloméros, General (ret), former Supreme Commander Transformation NATO (Norfolk), Paris Not so long ago, discussing European strategic autonomy was considered by many as a non-starter. First and foremost because there was no consensus between EU members and therefore, they softened the language and, beating around the bush, used a more consensual approach by…
by Fred Stoof, owner of Stoof International GmbH, Borkheide/Berlin E uropean Union operations and missions are deployed within the framework of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). In 2003, the EU launched its first military operation to monitor the peace agreement in Macedonia and the operation EUFOR/Althea to oversee the Dayton Agreement in…