Europe is faced with a degradation of its security environment, which affects all of the neighboring regional theaters and occurs along the entire conflict spectrum (Russian strategic resurgence, instability and civil wars around the Mediterranean Sea, changing patterns of jihadist terrorism, etc.), and with a growing uncertainty regarding the future commitment to European security of two critical allies, the United States and the United Kingdom. In this context, the European strategic autonomy program established within Ifri’s Security Studies Center provides analytical support to the renewed European interest for defense, and to the attainment of the goal of strategic autonomy, as identified in the EU’s Global Strategy.
Its aims are:
Research Fellow, Director of Ifri's Security Studies Center
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Research Fellow, Head of Ifri's Geopolitics of Technology Program
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The EU’s basic assumptions, on which it grounds its economic and trade power, are being steadily cast into doubt. The EU’s main trade partners, the US and China, increasingly set their sights on securing their supply chains, which may further a potential decoupling.
Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, the Bundeswehr has been led to refocus on territorial defense and collective security, which constituted the core of its activity for decades. This evolution break with the long period of efforts during which the Bundeswehr painfully tried to...
The German government has long hesitated to take a position on the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. It has refused to question the planned commissioning of Nord Stream 2 and to supply Ukraine with weapons.
France’s policy vis-à-vis the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has always been ambivalent. On paper, France’s strategic culture fits well within NATO’s nature and agenda. Yet, in practice, French membership of NATO has always been uneasy. Several intra-alliance developments...
This paper explores how the E3 format – involving France, Germany and the UK – might develop in response to the challenges presented by the UK’s departure from the EU. The paper outlines how the trilateral format has supported policymaking to date, most notably in dialogue on Iran’s nuclear...
To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic affected defense priorities across Europe?
In the Aachen Treaty in 2019, Germany and France agree to deepen their "common program in defense matters" and to pursue a common vision in terms of arms export. These are the preconditions that will help consolidate a culture of common armed forces, common interventions, and European defense...
COVID-19 acts as a catalyst in international relations.
In many ways, defense firms in Europe should be pleased with the recent uptick in defense spending.
As the world stage is marked by renewed great power competition, Europe lacks proper means to assert and defend its own independent political view. Despite this backdrop, the authors of this report contend that the current stalemate can be overcome with a collective and inclusive approach.
A conference with Benedetta Berti, head of Policy Planning in the Office of the Secretary General at NATO.
Global power competition, growing unpredictability, mounting military pressures, hybrid threats and the persistence of terrorism... Europe is now facing a deterioration of its strategic environment.
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To what extent has the COVID-19 pandemic affected defense priorities across Europe?
In the light of a more demanding security environment, but also a rare momentum for further European integration, Berlin and Paris are challenged to take their security and defence cooperation to the next level, bilaterally as well as in the EU. Progress in Franco-German security and...
Since 1983, the QUAD gathers every year, the SWP, RAND Corporation, Chatham House and Ifri.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) used to carry the promise of a paneuropean security order. It is the only Euroatlantic security organization in which the “West” and Russia can cooperate on an equal footing.
This expert seminar gathered officials from national ministries of defense, national delegations to NATO, officials from NATO, the EDA, and the EEAS, as well as experts. The objective was to discuss the ambitions of the framework nations concept for framework nations as well as for partner...
Rencontre-débat animée par Marc Hecker, rédacteur en chef de la revue Politique étrangère.
...This expert seminar aims to address Franco-British defence cooperation in the broader context. It is organised by the Institut français des relations internationales and the Centre for European Reform.
This expert seminar focused on the planning processes within the European Defence Agency and NATO. It gathered officials from NATO, the EDA, the EEAS, national delegations to the EU and NATO, as well as experts.
Germany's unilateral decision to halt all shipments of military equipment to Saudi Arabia has stopped 10's of billions of dollars worth of orders of joint European arms exports, bringing the question of deep arms export cooperation among European partners into high relief.
Nicolas Sarkozy used to promote himself as a transatlanticist or anglophile French president. Emmanuel Macron seems to have taken this approach a step further. Macron appears to have taken upon France and himself the responsibility of not allowing Britain and more importantly, the United...
The offer of active military support to France in Syria or in the Sahel by several European member states is likely to overshadow the absence of meaningful commitment from others. On balance, the picture will not be too disheartening for supporters of the EU: its foreign and security policy...
L'Allemagne a annoncé qu'elle allait publier en 2016 un nouveau Livre blanc sur la défense. Cet exercice pourrait illustrer que les signaux positifs, mais dispersés, lancés par l'Allemagne depuis un peu plus d'un an auguraient d'un réel changement de posture stratégique, gage d'une reprise...
Many national perspectives published in this series share a similar analysis of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP): it is underperforming and needs to be adapted. However, the...
