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by Dr Hans Christoph Atzpodien, Managing Director of Bundesverband Deutscher Sicherheits- und Verteidigungsindustrie (BDSV), and Lucas Hirsch, Sustainability Analyst at BDSV, Berlin I t was in Paris in 2015 when 196 nations approved a joint commitment (Paris Agreement) to limit global warming to 1.5C and to reach carbon neutrality in the second half of this…

by Manuel de la Cámara Hermoso, EuroDefense-Spain, Madrid In 1995, the European Union (EU) launched the so-called “Barcelona process”, a comprehensive plan whose objective was to extend the area of stability, prosperity, and development to its southern neighbourhood. In 2004, the Mediterranean partners were included in the “European Neighbourhood Policy” (ENP), which included both the…

Interview with Dr Jan Joel Andersson, Senior Analyst, European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), Paris The European: Mr Andersson, as a Senior Analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) in Paris, you have been working on the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) over many years and you have analysed the…

A report by Hartmut Bühl, Paris Eager to know how the European Union Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) functions, I was very glad to be invited by Antoine Lemasson, who heads up the ERCC, for a walk through the centre. Visiting, amongst others, the operations and the crisis room, I learned operational details and how…

by Sabine Henzler, Director for Strategy and Impact, Directorate-General Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Brussels No one can predict when disaster will strike, but science can help us prepare for the worst and to recover quickly and better. With ever more wildfires, droughts and floods in the EU and around the world, the victims of…

Interview with Babatunde Anthony Ojei, Country Director for Nigeria, International Rescue Committee (IRC), Abuja The European: Mr Ojei, you have been the Country Director for Nigeria of the non-governmental organisation International Rescue Committee (IRC) since February 2021. Could you briefly explain the mission of the IRC? Babatunde Ojei: The IRC helps people affected by humanitarian…

Interview with Ambassador Dr John Paul Grech, Deputy Secretary General, Social & Civil Affairs, Union for the Mediterranean, Barcelona Hartmut Bühl: Ambassador Grech, the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is an intergovernmental Euro-Mediterranean organisation aimed at contributing to regional stability, human development and integration: what is the added value of the UfM to security and…

by Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Director General, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB) Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, now in its second year, has had devastating effects on the Ukrainian people, with serious spillover effects both in Europe and globally. In laying bare some of Europe’s strategic vulnerabilities, the war reinforces our collective need to build up…

by Tristan Simonart, Team Leader, International Cooperation, DG ECHO, European Commission, Brussels Due to their immediate geographic proximity, the European Union (EU) and its eastern and southern neighbouring regions and countries face similar cross-border disaster risks. Some of them are further exacerbated by the severe and increasing impact of climate change, as already seen this…

Interview with Julia Stewart-David, Acting Director, Disaster Preparedness and Prevention/Civil Protection Horizontal Issues (ECHO B.1), and Hans Das, Director for Emergency Management and rescEU (ECHO A), DG ECHO,  European Commission, Brussels The European: Ms Stewart-David, Mr Das, you both hold leading positions within the European Commission’s Directorate General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid…

by Harald Kujat, former Chief Military Committee NATO, Berlin On 4 April 2023, 74 years after the founding of the North Atlantic Alliance, Finland was admitted as its 31st member. The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, declared that “Finland is committed to the security of all NATO member states”, referring explicitly to one of the…

by Dr Hazem Rihawi, Senior Programs Manager, American Relief Coalition for Syria (ARCS) / Co-Chair of InterAction’s Syria Working Group, Washington DC On February 6th, 2023, at 4:17 am, a colossal earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, with its epicenter near Gaziantep, struck the Southern region of Türkiye and Northwest Syria. This seismic event…

by Natalia Pouzyreff, Member of Parliament (Yvelines/6th district), Member of the Defence Committee, Assemblée Nationale, Paris Since 24 February 2022, the war on Europe’s doorstep has led to a surge in military spending amongst European countries. Germany has conducted a total shift in its defence policy and has dedicated a special €100bn fund. Poland, for…

by Janez Lenarčič, European Commissioner for Crisis Management, European Commission, Brussels You are at home when you hear the wildfire warning over the radio. You need to leave immediately. Your thoughts race immediately to your children, still at school… It was August 2022 when France requested help from the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (hereafter…

Was the Ukrainian war correspondent, Yurii Butusov, right when he said, in a recent interview in the Neue Züricher Zeitung, that the Third World War has already begun with the war in Ukraine? The Spanish author, Raúl Sánchez Cedillo, in his book This war will not end in Ukraine[1] refers back to the slide into…

(Ed/hb, Paris) This week, the European Union CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative holds its 9th International meeting of the National Focal Points in Brussels. Launched in 2010 to increase national and regional CBRN cooperation worldwide, this successful EU-funded initiative currently counts 64 partner countries. The 2023 Brussels event, organised by…

Conference report by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris The 21st Berlin Security Conference (BSC), which took place from 30-31 November 2022 had a very special character. Never before has a BSC been held in wartime in Europe; never before have there been so many high-ranking speakers from the European Union (EU) and NATO countries, and never…

Interview with Stefano Cont, Director Capacity, Armament & Planning (CAP), European Defence Agency, Brussels The European: Director, when you took over your position in April 2022 you declared: “At a time when defence expenditure is expected to increase significantly (…), European cooperation and collaborative capability development will be key to making sure the money is…

Interview with Michael Gahler MEP, European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg The European: Mr Gahler, you have been dealing with security and defence issues in the European Parliament since 2004 and have held leading positions both in your party and in Parliament. As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET) and a substitute member of the Subcommittee…

by Prof Dr Angelika Niebler MEP, EuropeanParliament, Brussels/Strasbourg Do you remember the attacks in September 2022 on the Nord Stream gas pipelines that connect Germany and Russia? The four explosions that hit the pipelines were immediately suspected to have been carried out by Russia, as there were already major political tensions after the Russian invasion…

by Jean-Dominique Giuliani, President of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Paris On 7 February, the European External Action Service (EEAS) released its first report on foreign information manipulation and interferences (FIMI), which a 2015 European Council asked it to draft. The European Parliament has set up a Committee of Inquiry on the same subject, as have…

by Dr Roberto Viola, Director General, DG CNECT, European Commission, Brussels As the digital and the physical worlds are converging more and more, it is of utmost importance to enhance cybersecurity. Cyberattacks know no borders. Therefore, a comprehensive EU approach based on trust, solidarity and mutual assistance is key to fight current and future threats…

by Professor Dr Thomas Jäger, Chair of International Relations and Foreign Policy, Cologne University, Cologne The international order is currently undergoing a geopolitical realignment. While the Unites States (US) and China are fixed as the two centres of the future world order, other powers are also striving for a place as world powers. But the…

by Nick Watts, Vice-President EuroDefense UK, London With the advent of a globalised and digitised world, the cyber threat has become all-pervasive. Unlike any other vector of warfare or terrorism, the cyber threat can reach into the lives of every citizen, and every business. To ensure that European civil society, as well as national security…

by Stefanie Buzmaniuk, Senior Research Fellow, Robert Schuman Foundation, Paris For some months now, the message has been clear in France: the Franco-German couple needs a “couple’s therapy”. The need for more emotions and affirmative reactions from the German side is repeatedly expressed by the French. The German media, on the other hand, have far…

by Gerhard Arnold, Publisher and Middle East correspondent to this magazine, Würzburg Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war on 24 February 2022, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has had an astonishing presence on the international and regional political stage. If one wants to adequately understand the Turkish leader’s increase in foreign policy prestige…

Has the war in Ukraine reached a turning point with the announcement that the west will deliver “Leopard2” main battle tanks to Ukraine, after such a long time of hesitation from Germany to send them and authorise their re-export from partner countries? First of all, there is the courage and bravery of the Ukrainian people,…

Interview with François Delattre, Ambassador of France to Germany, Berlin and Dr Hans Dieter Lucas, Ambassador of Germany to France, Paris The European: Excellencies, I am honoured that both of you have accepted this conversation. 22 January 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Franco-German Elysée Treaty in Paris. What did the…

Europe and the west have lost their balance. The war in Europe was the inducement to recognise that the world was experiencing a break with the past and that all over the world the cards are being reshuffled. Inside the European Union (EU), in some states the temptation to emulate populist promises is increasing, in…

by Dr Antonella Cavallo, rescEU CBRN Lead, DG ECHO, European Commission, Brussels On 19th October in Kyiv, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded a national order of merit to the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič recognising the efforts in assisting Ukraine and people in need. To this day, the European Response Coordination Centre…

by Johann Fischer, Head of Unit Land & Logistic, and Friedrich Aflenzer, Project Officer for CBRN Defence, European Defence Agency, Brussels The early detection and reconnaissance of chemical, nuclear and biological incidents will be crucial for soldiers’ safety in future warfare. As part of efforts to increase the safety of its armed forces and the…

by Talgat Toleubayev, UNICRI’s Regional Coordinator of the CBRN Risk Mitigation and Security Governance Programme The development of a series of CBRN Guides is funded by the European Union (EU) Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (CoE) Initiative. This activity is coordinated by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice…

by Colonel Stephan Saalow, Commander CBRN Defence Command and Chairman FNC Cluster CBRN Protection, Bundeswehr CBRN Defence Command, Bruchsal The use of fourth generation chemical agents in Salisbury (UK), continued nuclear sabre-rattling from North-Korea and Iran, nuclear power plants (NPPS) under threat like in Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine), the exploitation of World War 1 chemical warfare agents documented by the…

Hartmut Bühl asked Hasso von Blücher (right) about innovative CBRN protection and the success of his company The conversation with the owner of Blücher GMBH took place in early 2019 in Erkrath. It was first published in Volume nr. 32 of this magazine The European: Herr von Blücher, this year [2019] you are celebrating the…

Interview with Bakhtiyor Gulyamov, Head of Regional Secretariat for Central Asia, EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative, Tashkent The European: Mr Gulyamov, you have been the Head of Secretariat of the Central Asia (CA) region within the Euro­pean Union’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative since 2015. You…

by Sebastian Meyer-Plath, Sales Director, BLÜCHER, Erkrath As Winston Churchill once very rightly observed, “national security is the primary duty of any government and certainly takes precedence over economic stability”. Defending people against potential attacks with chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) substances by terrorist groups or state aggressors is a crucial part of national…

by Dr Philippe Quevauviller, Policy and Research Programming Officer, DG Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission, Brussels* To set the scene, it is important to stress that CBRN research cannot be discussed on a solely scientific ground, i.e. research needs must be placed in a larger policy, industry and civil society context. Actions to secure…

Interview with Natalie Pauwels, Head of Unit, European Commission Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, Brussels, and Marian de Bruijn, Programme Coordinator, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Turin   After a forced three-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 8th annual meeting of the National Focal Points (NFPs) of the European Union…

Report on the 8th National Focal Points meeting of the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative by Nannette Cazaubon, Paris After a forced three-year break due to the Covid-19 pande­mic, the European Union Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative held its 8th annual meeting of National Focal…

by Dr Andreas Arnold, Director of Product Management, Blücher GmbH, Erkrath The comparison of current threats with common scenarios of the past, and the analysis of mission concepts, incidents and challenges repeatedly point to new requirements for personal protective equipment against CBRNe (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosives) threats. These range from equipment providing high…

The following definitions are excerpt from a study on “EU preparedness and responses to Chemical, Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) threats”. The study, requested by the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) in 2019 and published in 2021, takes stock of the existing preparedness and response mechanisms and compares these against the changing…

European political leaders have understood that is vital for the continent to request the best and the utmost from Member States in a close civil-military cooperation aiming to counter CBRN related risks and threats, get equipped to the highest degree possible, prepared and jointly trained to counter CBRN multi-hazard emergency situations. “The aim is to…

The independent magazine for European security and defence policy ‘The European Security & Defence Union’ dedicates its latest edition to the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence initiative. The quarterly publication spotlights the EU CBRN CoE as the initiative gains momentum and reflects current concerns in view of the geopolitical situation. “This initiative to combat CBRN…

by Johann Fischer, Head of Unit Land & Logistic, and Friedrich Aflenzer, Project Officer for CBRN Defence, European Defence Agency, Brussels The early detection and reconnaissance of chemical, nuclear and biological incidents will be crucial for soldiers’ safety in future warfare. As part of efforts to increase the safety of its armed forces and the…

by Silvio Stockmann, Member of the Advisory Board of DIHAG Holding GmbH, andTobias Romanowsky, Sales Engineer SHB Stahl und Hartgusswerk, Bösdorf GmbH, Leipzig With Covid-19 and the blockage of the Suez Canal, global supply chains and various manufacturing sectors have been tested on resilience, adaptability, and supply security on an unprecedented scale. Since 24th February…

Report by Hartmut Bühl on his information visit to General Dynamics European Land Systems (GDELS) at the Eurosatory exhibition near Paris in June 2022 Military mobility was one of the issues that featured most prominently in the armament show at Eurosatory (Villepinte, France), the largest exhibition of land forces in Europe. Given the background of…

Interview with Lutz Kampmann, Managing Director of Northrop Grumman LITEF Holding GmbH, Freiburg The European: Mr Kampmann, you have been the Managing Director of LITEF since 2019 after holding several executive positions in international companies. LITEF was founded in Germany more than 60 years ago and started by producing under licence and maintaining a navigation…

by Colonel Stephan Saalow, Commander CBRN Defence Command and Chairman FNC Cluster CBRN Protection, Bundeswehr CBRN Defence Command, Bruchsal The use of fourth generation chemical agents in Salisbury (UK), continued nuclear sabre-rattling from North-Korea and Iran, nuclear power plants (NPPS) under threat like in Zaporizhzhia (Ukraine), the exploitation of World War 1 chemical warfare agents documented by the…

Interview with Mohamed Salami, Head ofRegional Office, African Atlantic Facade (AAF), EU CBRN Centres of Excellence, Rabat The European: Mr Salami, you have been the Head of the Regional Office for the African Atlantic Façade (AAF) region of the European Union CBRN Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative for 12 years and…

by Günter Povoden, key expert with the On-Site Assistance (OSA) for the Middle East region of the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative, Vienna The distinguished reader knows that “Arz” is the Arabic word for “cedar”, the national symbol of Lebanon, the country which hosted the ARZ CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) exercise from 6th…

Interview with Bakhtiyor Gulyamov, Head of Regional Secretariat for Central Asia, EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative, Tashkent The European: Mr Gulyamov, you have been the Head of Secretariat of the Central Asia (CA) region within the Euro­pean Union’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative since 2015. You…

by Dr Antonella Cavallo, rescEU CBRN Lead, DG ECHO, European Commission, Brussels On 19th October in Kyiv, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded a national order of merit to the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič recognising the efforts in assisting Ukraine and people in need. To this day, the European Response Coordination Centre…

Report on the 8th National Focal Points meeting of the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative by Nannette Cazaubon, Paris After a forced three-year break due to the Covid-19 pande­mic, the European Union Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) Initiative held its 8th annual meeting of National Focal…

Interview with Natalie Pauwels, Head of Unit, European Commission Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, Brussels, and Marian de Bruijn, Programme Coordinator, United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), Turin   After a forced three-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 8th annual meeting of the National Focal Points (NFPs) of the European Union…

by Jean-Dominique Giuliani, President of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Paris Europe is fragile. The sum of so many democracies cannot be a smooth river. They are all plagued by regressive, populist, extremist, nationalist and xenophobic currents. And so, it is easier to destabilise and attack them, which is what Vladimir Putin has been systematically doing…

by Dr Philippe Quevauviller, Policy and Research Programming Officer, DG Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission, Brussels* To set the scene, it is important to stress that CBRN research cannot be discussed on a solely scientific ground, i.e. research needs must be placed in a larger policy, industry and civil society context. Actions to secure…

by Professor Hideshi Tokuchi, President of the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS), Tokyo, and East Asia correspondent of this magazine The government of Japan has been engaged in the revision of its National Security Strategy since last autumn. The process is expected to be over in mid-December just before the Japanese budget compilation…

by Michael Singh, Managing Director and Lane-Swig Senior Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington For years, American strategists have warned that the world was changing, but their pleas that US foreign policy must change with it were ignored. More than a decade ago, the Obama administration announced a “pivot to Asia,” even…

by Harald Kujat, General (ret), former German Chief of Defence and former Chairman Military Committee NATO, Lögow The 21st century is marked by the rise of the Peoples’ Repu­blic of China (PRC) as an economic and military world power and by the rivalry between the great powers: the United States of America (US), Russia and China. …

How can Putin’s policy of enslaving his people, consistently enforced for 21 years, fail when it comes to Ukraine? The Russian dictator is losing more and more ground with his war policy. The attack on Ukraine, which was inten­ded to be a short war to make Putin a world player again, hasn’t made real progress…

by Patrice Mompeyssin, Brigadier General (ret), Secretary General of the EURODEFENSE network, ParisThe 2022 annual meeting of the EURODEFENSE network, with representatives from 15 countries, took place in Paris from 19th-21st May. It was held in the shadow of Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine and was a very insightful event in these changing times. The…

by Jörg Maffert, Marketing and Technical Support Manager, Dillinger Hüttenwerke AG, Dillingen The increasingly unstable geopolitical security situation, with war in Europe and terrorist attacks especially in the Sahel in Africa, is making the number of military and civil-military missions rise. The deployment of NATO forces to the eastern flank of the Alliance simultaneously with…

by Debalina Ghoshal, Non Resident Fellow, Council on International Policy;Indian Correspondent of this magazine,Kolkata Qualitative improvements in China’s nuclear forces are a result of its nuclear doctrine of ‘no first use’, coupled with a posture of ‘limited deterrence.’ The Russia-Ukraine war poses new security challenges to the global order making nuclear deterrence most vulnerable.In 1962,…

by Talgat Toleubayev, UNICRI’s RegionalCoordinator of the CBRN Risk Mitigation and Security Governance Programme The development of a series of CBRN Guides is funded by the European Union (EU) Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence (CoE) Initiative. This activity is coordinated by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research…

Interview with Ilmar Tamm, Brigadier General, Commandant of the Baltic Defence College, Tartu The European: General, you are the current Commandant of the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia. Your institution was founded in 1998 by the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, years before these Baltic nations, until 1992 part of the Soviet Union,…

Interview with Lieutenant GeneralPeter Devogelaere, Commander EUROCORPS, Strasbourg The European: General, you have been the Commanding General of EUROCORPS for almost a year now. During that time, you have been living through the aftermath of the withdrawal of allied forces from Afghanistan, and since 24th February of this year, the security of Europe has been…

by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, ParisIn early June 2022, the French “Forum de Défense et de Stratégie” (FDS) in cooperation with the French Embassy in Berlin and with the support of the President of EuroDefense-­Germany, Ralph Thiele, organised a high-level meeting on transatlantic security architecture with the participation of senior officials from different ministries, leading military…

by Michael Gahler MEP, European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg 24th February this year marks a turning point in European as well as global security. With its illegal and unprovoked attack against Ukraine, Russia’s dictator Putin did not only bring war – including tremendous human suffering – back to Europe, but he also endangered the rules-based international order.…

by Dr Antonella Cavallo, rescEU CBRN Lead,DG ECHO, European Commission, Brussels In a heartfelt address at the European Civil Protection Forum on 28th June, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, thanked EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič for standing by Ukraine since the very beginning.To this day, the European…

Interview with Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman, European Stability Initiative (ESI), Berlin The European: Gerald Knaus, we meet at a historic moment for the European project, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. You have worked on EU enlargement for decades, proposing ideas, from promoting visa-free travel for the Balkans and Moldova to including countries in the European…

by Teresa Czerwińska, Vice-President, European Investment Bank (EIB), Luxembourg For the European Union (EU) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the countries to our east are important partners and friends. Some of them are busy changing their societies and economies in hopes of joining the EU. As these countries carry out a lot of work…

by Professor Ioan Mircea Pașcu, former Vice-President of the European Parliament, Bukarest “Enlargement” and the “Schengen regime” were conceived as somehow complementary: once fulfilling the “acquis”, a new member was automatically included in the Schengen Agreement, allowing its citizens access to the fourth freedom, namely the free movement of people, conceived to make the EU…

by David McAllister MEP, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET), Brussels/Strasbourg The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the grave and wholesale violations of human rights and international law have made it all the more urgent for the EU to respond to new geopolitical dynamics. The historic decisions taken at…

A conference reportby Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris Under the patronage of the French EU Presidency, a two-day conference was held at the Ecole Militaire in Paris on 9th and 10th June 2022, bringing together directors of military education institutions and commanders of schools offering general staff courses from 23 EU Member States.Under the leadership of…

by Gesine Weber, Research Analyst, German Marshall Fund of the United States, Paris “When your own house is on fire, you don’t send your entire fire brigade to fight a wildfire fifty kilometres from your village.”This metaphor describes brutally well the pressing need to reassess the priorities for European security since the beginning of Russia’s…

by Cyrille Schott, honorary Prefect of region, member of the bureau of EuroDéfense-France, Strasbourg The issue of European sovereignty has been highlighted by Russian aggression in Ukraine. Beyond the necessary debates, the EU was able to react in a coordinated manner by six sets of sanctions against Russia, signs of its economic power. It was…

Commentary by Hartmut Bühl The NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June 2022 was the most decisive summit of this century. The Alliance adopted a new Strategic Concept and reassessed threats, with Russia named as the most significant and direct threat to the west. For the first time, China’s aggressive policy in the…

by Dr Delphine Deschaux-Dutard,Associate Professor, University Grenoble Alpes, CESICE, Grenoble, and Bastien Nivet, Senior Lecturer, EMLV, Paris La Défense The military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has forced Europeans to take a new step in asserting a more ambitious international posture, which should anchor the notion of European strategic autonomy in the medium…

by Michael Rühle, Head Climate and Energy Security Section, Emerging Security Challenges Division, NATO, Brussels Climate change has become humanity’s greatest challenge. The effects of global warming – melting polar ice caps, rising sea levels and, above all, an increase in extreme weather events – can now be felt worldwide. Accordingly, many states have declared…

by Jiří Šedivý, Chief Executive, and Jean-François Ripoche, Director of Research, Technology and Innovation of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Brussels After the appalling and totally unjustifiable Russian aggression against Ukraine and with a fully-fledged war now raging at the European Union’s doorstep, there is today a common understanding – probably stronger than ever before…

After intense negotiations, the European Union (EU) has finally adopted its so-called Strategic Compass, a forty-page paper published on 21st March 2022. Comprising a common vision for the Union’s role in security and defence, the document was announced as a major piece of EU policy by the incoming von der Leyen Commission in late 2019.…

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…

by Gerhard Arnold, Theologian and Publisher, Middle East correspondent of this magazine, Würzburg A mong experts, it is disputed whether the Iranian leadership is aiming to possess nuclear weapons at the earliest possible opportunity or just lay the groundwork to be able to produce them at short notice. It is also unclear whether Iran is…

by Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Research, Innovation, Culture, Education and Youth,European Commission, Brussels T he provoked war in Ukraine is the most recent signal of the need to defend our democratic values and freedoms. An urgent need that Europe addresses with strong resolve and unity. We prepared swift responses to tackle the humanitarian urgencies and…

by Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), Berlin The Russian invasion of Ukraine represents a turning point in European history. The leader of a nuclear power justifies the use of force and attacks a neighbouring democracy by arguing that the national identity of its people is artificial and deserves to be…

On 8th April, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen together with the EU High Representative Josep Borrell travelled to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In a joint press conference, von der Leyen handed over an envelope containing a questionary on EU accession to the Ukrainian President. Excerpts from von der Leyen’s remarks:…

by Sebastian Meyer-Plath, Sales Director, BLÜCHER GmbH, Erkrath R esilience is a term that has been increasingly used in the recent past to describe the capability of a community, organisation, state or society to withstand threats, catastrophes or any other substantial hardship which it may encounter. The major driver of the level of resilience is…

Interview with Alain Coldefy, Admiral (ret),former Major General of the French Armed Forces, Paris     The European: Admiral, in your book “Amiral – Le sel et les étoiles” you have succeeded in describing the multifaceted profession of the sailor with all its lessons and dangers. What are the differences between the sailors of yesterday and those…

by Frédéric Mauro, lawyer at the Brussels’ bar and associate researcher at the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS), Brussels/Paris A draft of the “strategic compass”, the first White paper on European defence, was released to Member States in last December. Astonishingly, the phrase “strategic autonomy” appears only once. And it is only mentioned…

Interview with Sorin Ducaru, Director of theEuropean Union Satellite Centre (SatCen), Torrejón  The European: Mr Ducaru, allow us to express our warmest congratulations on the 30th anniversary of your agency! For three decades now the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen) in Torrejón has been actively supporting European foreign and security policy and has by now become…

by Gesine Weber, Program Coordinator,German Marshall Fund of the United States, Paris Since 2016, European defence cooperation has made great leaps forward: the EU has launched the European Defence Fund (EDF), started cooperation within the framework of PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation), and the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence (CARD) now allows EU Member States to…

On 7th October 2021, the European Parliament adopted a resolution entitled “The Arctic: opportunities, concerns and security challenges”. [The Parliament] 1. Reaffirms that the Arctic is of strategic and political importance to the EU, as an Arctic stakeholder and global actor, and underlines the EU’s commitment to being a responsible actor, seeking the long-term sustainable…

by Dr Sabine Fischer, Senior Research Fellow, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik/German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin After almost eight years of conflict since Russia’s annexation of Crimea it is difficult to imagine that relations between the EU and Russia can get worse – and yet events of this winter teach us that…

by Prof Ioan Mircea Pașcu, former Defence Minister of Romania and former Vice-President of the European Parliament, Bucarest Any attempt to better understand the current relations between China and Russia and their impact on regional and global stability should consider at least four perspectives: the general shift of attention from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific,…

by Debalina Ghoshal, non-resident fellow at the Council on International Policy and Indian corres­pondent to this magazine, Kolkata Nuclear Weapon States (NWSs) – China, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and the United States – and other so called nuclear powers strive to develop technologies and systems that allow them to survive enemy nuclear or conventional…

by Dr Eunsook Chung, Senior Research Fellow and Director of the Department of Security Strategy Studies, The Sejong Institute, South Korea According to the US Department of Defense’s annual China Military Power Report released on 3rd November 2021, China has the biggest maritime force on the globe with an inventory of about 355 vessels. The…

by Hideshi Tokuchi, Professor, President of the Research Institute for Peace and Security (RIPS), Tokyo Today, the Taiwan Strait is a frontline of the systemic rivalry between the US and China. Taiwan is not only a vibrant democracy but also a success story of democratic governance to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Taiwan is also…

by Ambassador Barry Desker, Distinguished Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore The coming decade will see increasing competition between the United States, which has been the global superpower since the end of the Cold War, and a rising China. This competition will have a different dimension…

Interview with Moritz Brake, Kapitänleutnant and Lecturer for Maritime Security and Strategy, University of Bonn The European: Mr Brake, the European Union (EU) is currently facing adversity, geopolitical competition and a broad range of social, ecological, juridical and political challenges. Is the Union strong enough to master these challenges? Moritz Brake: The EU needs to…

by Prof Thomas Jäger, Professor and political scientist, University of Cologne It continues to be an accurate definition of US central geostrategic interest that no power should become so dominant on the Eurasian continent that it dominates the other states and, building on this, can challenge the US in global politics. The reconfiguration of US…

by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris The Joint Communication on ”A stronger EU engagement for a peaceful, sustainable and prosperous Arctic” (https://bit.ly/3npDlii ) presented by the EU High Representative and the European Commission on 13th October 2021, cannot hide the fact that the Union has had problems gaining appropriate diplomatic status with the Arctic Council, as…

by William Cockburn, Interim ExecutiveDirector, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Bilbao The Covid-19 pandemic continues to be one of the biggest challenges that our societies and economies are facing. With most of Europe under lockdown for months in 2020 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, recently we are again witnessing very…

by Jacques Favin Lévêque, Général (ret),Versailles, and Claude Roche, Vice-President of the Académie de l’Air et de l’Espace, Paris The recent draft security treaty presented by Russia proposes bilateral guarantees between Russia and the United States (US), with the aim of severely restricting NATO’s reach and any attempt to extend it closer to Russia. This…

There is no alternative to the Franco-German tandem by Cyrille Schott, former director of the National Institute for Advanced Security and Justice Studies (INHESJ), member of EuroDéfense France, Strasbourg, and Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris When the new French President was elected in 2017, the German weekly Der Spiegel devoted its front page to him, with…

Questioning initiatives in European defence In a telephone conference, we asked Dipl-Ing, Major General (ret), Reinhard Wolski, Moderator of The Berlin Security Conference, to take a stand on some of the developments in the EU’s security and defence policy and major armament developments. Nannette Cazaubon: General, the EU High Representative and Vice- President of the European…

Contribution in missile technology to the EU’s strategic compass Interview with Thomas Gottschild, Managing Director of MBDA Deutschland GmbH and Executive Group Director Strategy MBDA, Schrobenhausen The European: Mr Gottschild, MBDA was created in 2001 after the merger of missile systems companies from France, Italy and the UK, later followed by enterprises from Germany and Spain.…

The European Union is continuing efforts to develop own defence capabilities in cooperation, adapting structures and creating financial instruments for security and defence. Although European armaments cooperation is still  in its infancy, the groundwork has been laid for drones, future air combat systems and ground combat systems – but they all involve political and technological risks. OCCAR: a centre…

by Jean-Louis Gergorin and Léo Isaac-Dognin, co-authors of “Cyber, la guerre permanente” (Editions du Cerf, 2018), Paris A year ago, we voiced our concerns regarding the exponential rise of ransomware attacks, and over the impunity enjoyed by certain cybercriminals – modern pirates sometimes more akin to corsairs – in the countries from which they conduct their…

A European Security Council provides the basis for re-engagement by Robert Walter, President of EuroDéfense-United-Kingdom, London The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the apparent continuation, under President Biden, of “America First”, and of course Brexit, provide a critical challenge for Europe and the strategic defence of our continent, our values and our interests. The reaction in…

The world is too complex for every country to adhere to the same political recipes by Vladimir A. Chizhov, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation, Brussels Though relations between Russia and the West have always been a complex story of ups and downs, one should not forget that from the outset we have been…

by Dr Ronja Kempin, Senior Fellow at EU/Europe Research Group, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Berlin For a long time, the German federal government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, found it difficult to discuss Europe’s “strategic autonomy” in the Common Foreign Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Representatives of the outgoing government avoided…

The EU has to shoulder more responsibility for security and order in its near abroad by Christian Schmidt, former German Federal Minister, President of the German Atlantic Association and High Representative for Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo The 2020 US election marked an important change in transatlantic relations. Contrary to his predecessor, President Joe Biden sees the EU…

The failure of the NATO concept in Afghanistan Interview with General (ret) Harald Kujat, former German Chief of Defence and Chairman NATO Military Committee, Berlin The European: General Kujat, in politics, a thin line separates victory from defeat. Any military intervention has to be carefully weighed up and armed forces should only be engaged if, on…

by Camille Grand, Assistant Secretary General, Defence Investment, NATO, Brussels We face a challenging security environment marked by systemic competition from assertive powers, instability near Europe’s borders, terrorism, cyber-attacks, disinformation, and much more. This year, NATO leaders took the decisions needed to strengthen our Alliance in light of these threats and to prepare it for…

Interview with Professor Dr Hans-Gert Pöttering, former President of the European Parliament, Berlin The European: Professor Pöttering, what was your first thought when you heard US President Joe Biden, on the occasion of his visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels some months ago, say that “America is back again”? Hans-Gert Pöttering: We all were happy to hear…

In Brussels, the old Greek saying that progress is only stimulated by crises carries weight. The fact that Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is taking her leave of the circle of EU leaders after 16 years has been taken with equanimity in Brussels, in the knowledge that her departure will not provoke an internal crisis…

by Kaan Savul, Head of International Cooperation and Global Affairs, Ecolog Deutschland, Düsseldorf To the many entrenched global inequalities – wealth distribution, education attainment, life expectancy and human rights – we can now add access to safe, effective vaccinations.  In many developed countries, 80% or more of the adult population has now received two Covid-19…

by Jean-Dominique Giuliani, President of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Paris European judges are being criticised by European populists for undermining the “legal sovereignty” of EU member states. The law has become an electoral issue and the most far-fetched promises and assertions flourish in the public debate. Two courts are now at issue: the European Court…

by Israel Rafalovich, Journalist, BrusselsDefence strategists and planners are confronted to a rapidly approaching future with a new war fighting regime where unmanned and autonomous systems play central roles. For politicians and military strategists with tight budgets, robots are popular especially with military interventions in foreign countries becoming less popular. Military experts see robotics as…

by Patrick Bellouard, former Président EuroDéfense France, Paris, and Cyrille Schott, Préfet (h) de Région, member of EuroDéfense France, Strasbourg The Franco-German engine is essential for Europe, including in armament cooperation. However, this engine, in the field of defence, stumbles upon difficulties. Different strategic objectives In Germany, the tradition of strategic restraint, coupled with close…

by Dr Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann MdB, member of the Bundestag and the federal board of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Berlin The model of the German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, as a “parliamentary army” has always been viewed on the French side with suspicion, as a factor hampering Franco-German cooperation. Our French friends, accustomed to a…

by Maria Camello, Analyst, and Federico Santopinto, Senior analyst at GRIP*, Brussels In 1951, the coal and steel industries were still the lifeblood of the war. The idea of entrusting the administration of this strategic sector of the European nations’ economy to a supranational entity did not seem at all realistic at the time. When…

by Vice Admiral Hervé Bléjean, Director General European Union Military Staff /Director Military Planning and Conduct Capability, Brussels The security situation faced by Europeans today can be increasingly characterised by evolving threats, complexity and uncertainty. On a global scale, contested norms, strategic competition, climate change, terrorist, cyber and hybrid threats can potentially increase instability and…

by Sorin Ducaru, Director of the European Union Satellite Centre (SatCen), Madrid With nearly 30 years since its foundation, the EU Satellite Centre (SatCen) has established itself as the prime provider of geospatial intelligence analysis for EU external action. The Centre in Torrejon near Madrid supports the collective decision making in Common Foreign and Security…

by Panagiotis Nikas, Founding Director of ZEUXIS, Athens On 28th July, we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Refugee Convention (the Convention). Its core concept is the protection of every human being who fears persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Non-refoulement is a legal obligation…

by François Thomas, President of SOS MEDITERRANEE France, Marseille  has been the president of SOS MEDITERRANEE France since June 2019. He holds a master’s degree in international transport and is a certified captain and chief engineer in the French Merchant Navy. Acting as marine consultant, he has spent over 40 years in the maritime sector,…

by Andrea Quaden, humanitarian aid worker, Syria     I have been working to the best of my abilities with and for the displaced children, women and men of this world for more than a decade now. From Germany to Turkey and Syria to Iraq, the Mediterranean Sea and back to Syria. There is one ultimate truth in…

by Fabrice Leggeri, Executive Director of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Warsaw Over the last five years Frontex has become one of the most dynamic EU agencies. The scale and speed of Frontex growth has no precedent. When the agency started to operate in 2005, its budget was of just €6m with about…

by Mariam Traore Chazalnoel, Senior Policy Officer, and Dina Ionesco, Head of the Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division, International Organization for  Migration (IOM)1, Geneva The impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on migration are felt on every continent. The linkages between migration, environment and climate change are complex. People might migrate directly due…

by Stefanie Buzmaniuk, Head of Publications, and Ramona Bloj, Head of Studies, Robert Schuman Foundation, Paris In terms of migration policy, the EU has a shared competence. Its intervention depends on the application of the principle of subsidiarity and is closely linked to the creation of the Schengen area. The events since 2015 and the…

Interview with Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Luxembourg, and Gerald Knaus, Founding Chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), Berlin While the European Commission is proposing a fresh start on migration and asylum policy, striking a new balance between responsibility and solidarity of EU Member States, the…

Interview with Dr Dirk Wössner, CEO, CompuGroup Medical, Koblenz The European: Dr Wössner, you became the Chief Executive Officer of CompuGroup Medical (CGM) in 2021, at a time when the company’s state-of-the-art software is supporting Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide. Even more than before the pandemic, the whole world is now calling for connections between people, facilities,…

On 11th September (9/11) all American soldiers will have left Afghanistan. Joe Biden, the new US President, has followed the policy set out by his predecessor and his countrymen will surely thank him for it. Britain’s top officer however has voiced dismay at the announcement by the US President that Americans troops are to be…

by Christopher Eid, PhD student on European policy, France The search for closer relations between the European Union and the countries of the Mediterranean basin has taken the form of a Mediterranean partnership agreement (Gomez, 2018) which provides for cooperation in various fields and establishes an open global level of interaction, which includes integration. This…

Interview with Michael Singh, Managing Director, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, D.C. The European: Mr Sing, during the last year we saw pictures of America, which shocked all those who believed in the democratic values the United States has always defended. We saw the murder of a black citizen, George Floyd, by…

by Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Munich In Europe, the sigh of relief was noticeable when President Biden stressed the renewed US commitment to NATO at the beginning of his tenure. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Special Edition in February 2021, he made it crystal clear that the United…

Responsibility must remain in human hands by Dr Michael Stehr, Advocate, Board Member of EuroDefense, Bonn, Germany A cultural bias seems to dominate debates on “autonomous systems” with perceptions and expectations shaped by an independently acting “Terminator” or “Skynet”, a superior and amoral artificial intelligence (AI) system with nearly unlimited faculties. The mundane reality The reality…

“The international composition of Eurocorps means that we have to consider each individual nation’s approach and then adopt the best one.” Interview with Lieutenant General Laurent Kolodziej, Commanding General Eurocorps, Strasbourg The European: General, you are the 13th Commanding General of Eurocorps, a multinational army corps, highly respected for its military capabilities and performance in…

by Michael Rühle, Head of the Hybrid Challenges and Energy Security Section, NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division, Brussels For over seven decades, deterrence has been a key concept of western defence and strategic thinking. The reason for this prominence is not difficult to fathom. Deterrence is congenial to democracies. As Lawrence Freedman, one of the…

Support multilateral efforts to maintain and build peace globally by Dr Kinga Brudzinska, Policy Director, Centre for Global Europe, GLOBSEC Policy Institute, and Lucia Rybnikárová, MA, Project Coordinator, GLOBSEC Policy Institute, Bratislava As the European Union (EU) comes to terms with a rapidly changing global environment, hardly anyone disputes the fact that the EU needs…

Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris One year after its irruption into our lives, the Covid-19 pandemic remains at the top of the political agenda and media focus, to the extent that we risk forgetting that the world continues to turn and that its activities cannot be reduced to health issues alone. On the contrary, globalisation is…

The Agency is the European hub for collaborative capability development “We need to stay on course and continue the implementation of the new EU defence tools that have been created since 2016.” Interview with Jiří Šedivý, CEO of the European Defence Agency, Brussels The European: Mr Šedivý, you have been the Chief Executive Officer of…

(ed/hb, Paris) On 22nd February 2021, the European Commission adopted the Communication on an Action plan on synergies between civil, defence and space industries. “With the European Defence Fund we have a strong potential for synergies between innovation in space, defence and civil research & innovation. We need this for a number of critical technologies.…

by Sinéad O’Sullivan, Research Fellow, Center for Climate and Security, Washington, D.C. The last year has created ample evidence showing that the impacts of climate change and climate-related threats are in line with, or exceeding, projections of global physical change. Climate change has created consequences for threats that can no longer be contained by borders;…

by Dr Marcus DuBois King, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Governments, industry, and civil society are facing urgent political and economic risks to water security. As the impacts of climate change become more apparent, demand grows and supply is increasingly constrained. Each year at least 4 billion people experience severe…

(ed/Céline Merz, Linz am Rhein) On 11th December 2019, the European Commission presented the European Green Deal, a growth strategy with the objective of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, and at the same time boosting the economy and improving people’s health. The European Green Deal covers all sectors of the economy, notably…

by Olzod Boum-Yalagch, Chairman of the Mongolian Green Party, Ulaan-Baatar In these days of “pandemic” disasters, mankind is looking for solutions to address social, economic and environmental challenges. We believe that the way from this impasse is the concept of a green deal based on a pragmatic way of thinking and acting. Younger generations are…

by Oliver Bruzek, Policy officer of CompuGroup Medical (CGM), Berlin The question of whether the comprehensive digitalisation of our society can contribute to sustainable economic activity and active climate protection, or whether it is more likely to place a greater burden on our planet, is the subject of controversial debate. Today’s high consumption of resources,…

Why boosting climate policy must be at the heart of our coronavirus pandemic recovery by Dr Anton Hofreiter MdB, Co-chair of the parliamentary group Alliance 90 / The Greens in the German Bundestag, Berlin The coronavirus has shed a light on a new type of security threat. Everyone became aware that no border and no…

Europe must invest in high value space technology by Dr Johannes Bühl, postdoctoral researcher at the Leibniz Institute for TroposphericResearch (TROPOS), Leipzig Dr Johannes Bühl is a postdoctoral researcher at Leibnitz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS), Germany. Born in 1983, he studied physics with a main focus on optics at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.…

We need to achieve a green but just and fair transition by Marc Lemaître, Director-General, DG for Regional and Urban Policy, European Commission, Brussels Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. European Commission President von der Leyen has chosen climate and environment-related challenges as the top priority of…

by Robert Walter, former MP and President of the European Security and Defence Association, London On 16th March, the United Kingdom published its Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. This document, in the words of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, was clear that “Having left the European Union, the UK has started…

by Gerhard Arnold, Theologian and Publisher, Würzburg The Arab “axis of resistance” against Israel has broken, even if two long-standing hostile neighbours, Lebanon and Syria, will not hear of normalisation of their relations with the Jewish state. The “Abraham Accords”, brief and general statements about future cooperation between Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)…

by Natalia Pouzyreff and Michèle Tabarot, members of the French National Assembly, Paris In October 2020, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Defence Committee of the French National Assembly entrusted us with a mission on Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). It took place in the context of the first strategic review of PESCO with the evaluation…

by Hilde Hardeman, Director of the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), Brussels The EU launched a comprehensive response to the Covid-19 pandemic, focussing both on the needs at home and on the situation in partner countries, notably with our support for the COVAX mechanism (Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access) in close cooperation with…

It is high time for the EU to make strategic choices by David McAllister MEP, Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg As Europe begins its path to recovery from a major health crisis, foreign policy issues that have been temporarily out of the spotlight are bound to resurface. This comes at…

by Patrick Bellouard, President of EuroDéfense-France, Paris Since the beginning of 2020, Covid-19 and its economic and social impacts have revealed the vulnerability and dependencies of Europe in the health sector and more globally in the economic domain and value chains. There is a feeling of global uncertainty.The battle to halt the pandemic is a…

by General Eberhard Zorn, Chief of Defence, Berlin As Europeans, we have demonstrated solidarity with our partners and allies in the past months and supported each other in the fight against the coronavirus, including with capabilities of our armed forces. However, we must not allow these circumstances to draw attention away from the fact that…

Interview with François Bausch, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Luxembourg The European: Minister, Luxembourg is rightly recognised for the role it plays in the international community and its contribution to European security by its strong commitment to the EU and NATO. Defence is at a turning point in every country in Europe. Behind…

by Frédéric Mauro, Associate Research Fellow at IRIS, Lawyer at the bar of Brussels The need for a common defence of the European Union has been acknowledged since the early 1990s, when European leaders realised that they were unable to stop a genocide “two hours by plane from Paris”. Since the Treaty of Nice in…

by Michael Gahler MEP, Brussels/Strasbourg The Covid-19 pandemic is the most severe global crisis we are facing since World War 2. Fighting it is undoubtedly our current top priority. At the same time, we must not forget about the other global challenges that face us: the steady erosion of the international rules-based and multilateral order,…

by Arie Egozi, journalist, Tel Aviv A serious look at the Normalisation Agreements, also referred to as the “Abraham accords” signed on 15th September at the White House in Washington between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, as well as later between Israel and Sudan, proves that after the celebrations end, some major…

by Professor Hideshi Tokuchi, Senior Fellow, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo In 1954, when the then Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida visited west Germany, he emphasised to the Germans that European nations should pay more attention to east Asia as the communist bloc would go on the offensive, striking at the liberal bloc’s most…

The impact of the US election on Europe by General (ret.) Harald Kujat, formerm Chairman NATO Military Committee, Berlin No sooner is the election over than expectations are mounting on both sides of the Atlantic that the President-elect will seek to overcome the upheavals in the transatlantic relationship. Nothing would be better suited to restoring…

It is the crisis that ultimately moves the lines by Cyrille Schott, Préfet (h.) de région, Member of the Board of EuroDéfense France, Paris Security occupied the minds of Europe’s founding fathers: “Never again war!” However, they pragmatically focused on the economy, creating the European Coal and Steel Community, followed by the European Economic Community…

Ransomware is becoming a systemic threat to Europe’s economy by Jean-Louis Gergorin, former Executive VP for Strategy of EADS, and Léo Isaac-Dognin, Director for Digital Trust, Capgemini Invent, Paris Cybercrime entered a new chapter in 2020. What was once an emerging threat is now a full-blown risk to economic activity across the globe. Europe is…

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) by Hartmut Bühl, Publisher, Paris Trade deals do not only have an economic impact. They also have a geopolitical aspect, cultural outcomes and often prepare a reordering of regional alignments, mostly creating stability.On 15th November 2020, the fifteen countries of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) held a solemn…

Presidential elections in the United States by Michael Singh, Managing Director, and Charles Thépaut, Visiting Fellow, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Washington, D.C. The period from 2017–2020 will be remembered as an especially difficult one for transatlantic relations, and one in which favorable European views of the United States reached all-time lows or…

Is the German presidency succeeding to consolidate the Union and reinforce the European institutions? by Nicola Beer MEP, Vice-President of the European Parliament, Strasbourg/Brussels Big plans lie ahead. They set the EU’s direction for the next six months. As a German pacemaker on the European stage, they create a stronger, united Europe. The German Council…

Concrete solutions for concrete challenges by Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, Brussels The urgency of the EU’s security and defence initiatives is not diminishing. On the contrary: recent events in Mali, Libya, Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh confirm how deeply unstable countries and regions…

by Cyrille Schott, Préfet (h.) de région, Member of Board of EuroDéfense France, Paris If the performance of authoritarian regimes and democracies in the face of the pandemic has been questioned, another subject deserves consideration: that of the comparative effectiveness of unitary states and federal states. An accurate study of the issue will require sufficient…

by Professor Dr Ulf Dittmer, Director of the Institute for Virology, University Medicine Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen Viruses are very small pathogens that cannot be seen without significant magnification. However, modern borders do not stop these small pathogens from traveling around the world causing massive damage to human health and economies. We are currently still…

The Covid-19 pandemic has given powerful impetus to the digital transformation of health and care by Dr Roberto Viola, Director-General, DG Connect, European Commission, Brussels Digital technologies promise to make the work of medical personnel easier, including during a pandemic. In fact, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown that data and digital technologies are key for…

A n improved common EU health policy would not only be helpful – as has become more than clear against the background of the current pandemic – but is actually a downright vital necessity. Different approaches to the attempts at containment and treatment of the coronavirus, or the competing procurement of personal protective and urgently…

by Federico Fabbrini, Full Professor of EU Law at Dublin City University and Founding Director of the Brexit Institute, Dublin The withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) on 31st January 2020 represented an historical moment – but it did not represent the end of Brexit.    On the one hand,…

Solidarity between the peoples of Europe is the overarching aim of European integration. Its fundamental treaties refer to it and include it in many of their articles – the preamble to the Treaty on European Union (TEU) makes it an official objective: “… DESIRING to deepen the solidarity between their peoples while respecting their history,…

The European: Minister Asselborn, you are Luxembourg’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Minister for Immigration and Asylum. You are largely known in Europe as the personality embodying the voice of solidarity and humanity. The pictures of the situation in refugee camps and especially the fire in Lesbos’ camp Moria, where nearly ten thousand…

The Covid-19 pandemic has become the generational public health crisis we all feared. A crisis that has changed all aspects of life. Over the past nine months, we have witnessed unbearable human suffering, with over a million people having tragically lost their lives. This is not a statistic. Behind each number is a unique story,…

by Joseph Maina, Head of the EU CBRN CoE Regional Secretariat for Eastern and Central Africa (ECA), Nairobi The African continent is now, more than ever before, mo- bilized to find common strategies to combat and mitigate threats posed by CBRN materials. The Covid-19 pandemic is a grim reality. Globally, countries have been alerted about…

by El Hadj Lamine, Head of the EU CBRN CoE Regional Secretariat for North Africa and Sahel (NAS), Algiers Nowadays, the world is a small village thanks to the unprec- edented development of transportation and communica- tion, making free trade and human mobility easier. National security management is an environment which, while taking advantage of…

by Major Abdullah M. AlSaleem, Kuwait Fire Service Directorate, Kuwait City Based on science and knowledge, organisations strive to achieve the necessary progress that serves societies and provides them with the necessary security and protection. Along with the rapid technological progress we are experienc- ing nowadays, countries all over the world become small vil- lages,…

by Al-Sharif Nasser bin Nasser, Managing Director of the Middle East Scientific Institute for Security (MESIS) and Head of the EU CBRN CoE Middle East Regional Secretariat, Amman The Regional Radiation Detection Training Centre (RDTC) in Amman, Jordan, is the first facility of its kind in the Middle East. The Centre is a public-private partnership between the…

by Brigadier General EngineerHussein Ahmed al Harthi, Head of the GCC Regional Secretariat, EU CBRN CoE, Abu Dhabi The EU CBRN Centres of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) initia-tive in the Gulf region was initiated in 2014 in the spirit of international unity and cooperation to strengthen regional and international readiness towards CBRN threats and risks.…

A field report from Uzbekistan by Nannette Cazaubon In November 2019, together with Editor-in-Chief Hartmut Bühl, I took a flight to the capital of Uzbekistan in Central Asia. We were invited to participate as observers – me as a journalist, Hartmut as an expert – in the CBRN counter-terrorism field exercise “Jeyran”. Curious to learn how such…

by Otabek Kasimov, Head of Inspectorate on supervision of the implementation of the Convention on Prohibition of Chemical and Bacteriological Weapons, Tashkent Alongside the reforms initiated by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the country has been actively working in the international arena, strengthening links with the European Union (EU). The implementation…

by Dr Rudi Pauwels, Serial biotech entrepreneur and Founder & President of the Praesens Foundation, Brussels As an organisation devoted to epidemic preparedness, Praesens is committed to supporting the EU Coronavirus Global Response and the Security and Development Policy of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Interna- tional Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO).Epidemics should be…

The European: Monsieur Salami, you are the Head of the Re- gional Secretariat for the African Atlantic Façade (AAF), one of the eight regions in the CBRN Centres of Excellence initiative (EU CBRN CoE) set up by the European Union in 2010. Today, this initiative encompasses 61 Partner Countries and fosters national, regional and interregional cooperation…

(Ed/nc) The current global coronavirus crisis has brought biological risks and the necessity to prepare for pandemics to the fore. But the mitigation of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) risks and threats has already been part of the European Commis- sion’s activities for over a decade. In 2009 the Commission present- ed its first EU…

60 years of scientific experience By Said Abousahl, Head of Unit, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Brussels Established as a Joint Nuclear Research Centre by the Euratom Treaty, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) draws on 60 years of scientific experience and continually builds its expertise, sharing knowhow with EU Member States, the scientific community…

Europe’s institutions must be able to anticipate and efficiently manage upcoming crises By Natalia Pouzyreff, French member of Parliament and member of the Parliamentary defence committee The Covid-19 pandemic has shown the shortcomings of European states’ coordination efforts. This observation is now shared by Europe’s politicians, such as Wolfgang Schäuble, the President of the Bundestag,…

A network of networks to support CBRN risk mitigation, including non-proliferation By Tristan Simonart, CBRN risk mitigation, DG DEVCO, European Commission, Brussels Celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, the European external Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Centres of Excellence Initiative (EU CBRN CoE) is considered as a long term global network programme of national CBRN…

Op-ed on the EU’s reaction to the coronavirus crisis and the lessons learned By Josep Borrell, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, responsible for the defence industry, Brussels Beyond the health tragedy, the coronavirus crisis will…

The EU needs to preserve its unity, sanity and common sense By Tonino Picula MEP, Foreign Policy Coordinator for the S&D Group, European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that the year 2020 will define the future of the EU and the multilateral world as we know it. When Croatian journalists…

By Antonia Marie de Meo, Director of UNICRI, and Marian de Bruijn, Programme Coordinator at UNICRI, Turin In the area of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) risk mitigation, no country and no region can advance and play safe in isolation. Consequently, from 2010, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) has…

The Regional Prefect (ret) Cyrille Schott, Member of the board of EuroDéfense France and the Editor-in-Chief of this magazine, Hartmut Bühl, set out their thoughts on the Franco-German partnership at the service of the European Union. “I welcome the constructive proposal made by France and Germany. It acknowledges the scope and the size of the…

The European: Minister, at the end of Exercise Jeyran in Tashkent in November 2019, you concluded: “Finally we are striving together with the European Union for interregional cooperation in antiterrorism and CBRN mitigation.” Let’s take this ambitious objective as the starting point of our interview. Bakthiyor Gulyamov: Indeed, this is my conviction, and there are…

We are proud to share that on 26th November, our magazine was awarded the Jury’s special prize as part of the European Award for “Citizenship, Security and Defence”. They praised the quality of the articles and interviews that have enabled European citizens to better understand Europe’s defence and security issues and policies, and have shown…

“Jeyran” field exercise successfully carried out in Uzbekistan Tashkent, 15 November 2019 Today, the Counter-Terrorism Field Exercise “Jeyran” was concluded in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This major three-day event (13-15 November) was organized in the framework of the “European Union Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence” (EU CBRN CoE), a EU funded initiative…

Interview with Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg The interview was led by Hartmut Bühl and Nannette Cazaubon “I believe that the next great achievement for the European Parliament will be to obtain true power of legislative initiative.”   The European: President Tajani, you have served within the European Union for a long…

by Ioan Mircea Pașcu, Vice-President, European Parliament, Brussels /Strasbourg The deterioration of the security situation around Europe has accompanied the international financial and economic crisis of 2008. The EU has become inward looking, being gradually absorbed by internal problems (the sovereign debt, the euro etc.) The result has been the neglect of the conflicts around…

by Manfred Weber MEP, Chairman of the EEP Group, European Parliament, Brussels/ Strasbourg “We must create a European army by 2030, not to replace national armed forces, but to unite them under a common European roof.” (Manfred Weber) Our freedom and democracy is facing the biggest threat since the end of the Cold War. On…

by Ana Gomes, MEP (S&D, Portugal), European Parliament, Brussels/Strasbourg After 15 years and three mandates fulfilled as a MEP in the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, I will leave the European Parliament completely convinced that, more than ever, we need more Europe and a stronger European Union (EU). Needless to say…

Interview with Henriette Geiger, Director, DG DEVCO, EU Commission, Brussels “Our work is driven by the promotion and respect of EU values and principles, such as democracy, the rule of law, the universality and indivisibility of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The European: Ms Geiger, in the Directorate General (DG) for International Cooperation and Development…

Interview with Jean Asselborn, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs/Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Luxembourg The interview was conducted by Editor-in-Chief Hartmut Bühl. ”The instrumentalisation of the debate about migration is the most visible sign of a wider rift among EU Member States, which is mostly about the values the EU is based on.” The…

There is a historic opportunity to strengthen our partnership “For too long, the relationship between Europe and Africa was one of dependency, charity or cooperation on an ad-hoc basis.” by Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, European Commission, Brussels Europe and Africa are at an important crossroads today, with a historic opportunity…

Interview with Verena Papke, Director General, SOS MEDITERRANEE Germany, Berlin The interview was conducted by Nannette Cazaubon “We have to understand that people do not run towards something or a particular place, but that they flee from something.” – Verena Papke In the last 4 years at least 15,000 people have died crossing the Mediterranean…

by Wolfgang Hellmich MdB, Chairman of the Defence Committee, German Bundestag, Berlin Beyond differences and geographical boundaries there is a common interest – how Jean Monnet characterised Europe’s diversity. While this view has become largely accepted in economic terms, military cooperation and integration of EU Member States still have a long way to go. The…

Interview with Martin Konertz, Director Capabilities, Armament & Technology, EDA, Brussels “PESCO will be successful if it can strike the right security and defence balance between the European and the various national perspectives.” The Bratislava European Summit, in September 2016, brought a new impetus and awareness that Europe must revitalise defence cooperation against the backdrop…

A model for the development of future European strategic projects by Patrick Bellouard, President of EuroDéfense France, Paris “This project constitutes a great European achievement; it could be used as a model for the development of future European strategic projects in the domain of security and defence, such as telecommunications or surveillance systems.” Patrick Bellouard…

Interview with Gerald Knaus, Chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), Berlin The Interview was conducted by Editor-in-Chief Hartmut Bühl “The promise that Western Balkan countries may one day join the EU and partake in its promise of prosperity and democratic stability is central to peace in the region.” The European: Mr Knaus, there is…

By Bärbel Dieckmann, President of Welthungerhilfe, Bonn “From its years of experience, Welthungerhilfe knows that each euro used before an emergency is four to five times more effective than funds spent after the crisis.” People in poor countries are particularly affected by natural disasters. The poor are the main victims of droughts, hurricanes or floods,…

By Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for the Energy Union, European Commission, Brussels “Our economic future depends on our leadership in the solutions of tomorrow.” There is a proverb saying: if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. With the Energy Union, I am convinced we have been managing…

Interview with Franz Untersteller MdL, Minister of Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart The interview was conducted by Editor-in-Chief Hartmut Bühl “Today, consumers can also be energy producers.” The European: Minister, it is a pleasure to have this opportunity to talk with you here in Stuttgart. On the way here, I was…

By Greta Nielsen, Advisor, Federal Office of Bundeswehr Infrastructure, Environmental Protection & Services, Bonn “Consequences of climate change, such as shifts in global precipitation patterns, sea level rise or the increasing number of extreme weather events are affecting the work of the armed forces in different ways.” Climate and the accompanying environmental changes are some…

By Mauro Petriccione, Director-General, DG Climate Action, European Commission, Brussels “Climate change is clearly not a conventional security threat and addressing it will require a comprehensive and integrated approach, across all levels of governance.” From drought-damaged harvests to vanishing coastlines, adverse climate change impacts are already being felt across the world, and pressures on our…

By Philippe Quevauviller, DG Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission, Brussels “Policy development and implementation rely on effective interactions among policymakers, research, industry and practitioners in the EU Member States.” Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly € 80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).…

By Adina-Ioana Vălean MEP, Chair of ENVI Committee, European Parliament, Strasbourg/ Brussels “In the past, the European Parliament has been attaching particular importance to strengthening chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security in the EU,  with a special focus on the protection of public health, the environment and food safety.” In the past years, the EU’s…

By Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Brussels “Europe’s prosperity and security cannot be entirely separated from that of its neighbours.” We live in uncertain times. Our continent has experienced multiple crises in the last few years, the effects of which are still ongoing; the financial crisis, the migration crisis, the…

By Dr Christoph Erdmann, Managing Director of Secusmart, Düsseldorf Terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and war – security is the defining issue of our time. It is a huge challenge for us all. Every man, woman, and child has an inherent need to feel safe. The floods of refugees currently entering Europe are a clear indication…

By Maj Gen (ret) Koen Gijsbers, General Manager, NATO Communications and Information Agency, Brussels “The decision to recognise cyber as an operational domain alongside the existing environmental domains of land, maritime and air, will change the way that NATO plans and conducts operations so that cyberdefence is built into the planning from the start.” Today’s…

By Peter Round, Managing Director of PKR Solutions, Bedale Divide and rule is an old principle and we don’t have to look farto find leaders using the principle. We are living in an increasingly challenging security environment, which is forcing Europe to rethink its posture, role and strategies in defence and security. Is there already…

By Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol, The Hague “As cybercriminals are constantly changing the rules of the game, complementarity, flexibility and innovation are paramount to the successful implementation of the Union’s blueprint for ensuring cybersecurity.” Combatting cybercrime is often depicted as a battle betweenthe police and the cybercriminals. The exponential growth of cyber-enabled and cyber-facilitated…

By Arne Schönbohm, President of the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Bonn “IT security has become one of the central requirements of information and communication technologies.” Powerful and secure communication systems are the central nervous system of 21st century society. Hardly any part of society can do without reliable and secure IT and communication…

On 31 January, the multi-mission satellite GovSat-1 was successfully launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. GovSat-1 is the first satellite of GovSat, a public private partnership between the Government of Luxembourg and the world-leading satellite operator SES. Operated by GovSat from the Secure Mission Operations…

On 24 January, the European Commission reported on the progress made towards an effective and genuine Security Union, including priorities such as countering radicalisation, enhancing cybersecurity and protecting public spaces. The Commissioner for the Security Union, Julian King, said: “Over the past year we have intensified efforts to close information gaps, fight radicalisation, scale up…

55 years ago, on 22 January 1963, Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer signed the Elysée Treaty aimed at achieving reconciliation between France and the Federal Republic of Germany. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on 19 January 2018 in Paris to draft a new French-German treaty during the course of…