Europe Needs to Make Some Hard Choices in 2020

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This article was originally published in the ASPI’s The Strategist on 21 January 2020.

For the first time since 1957, Europe finds itself in a situation where three major powers—the United States, China and Russia—have an interest in weakening it. They may squeeze the European Union in very different ways, but they share an essential hostility to its governance model.

The European model, after all, is based on the principle of shared sovereignty among states in crucial areas such as market standards and trade. That liberal idea is antithetical to the American, Chinese and Russian view of sovereignty, which places the prerogative of states above global rules and norms of behaviour. Shared sovereignty is possible only among liberal states; unalloyed sovereignty is the preserve of populists and authoritarians.

A Geopolitical Commission? Beware the Industrial-strategic Gap in EU Defence Policy

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This article was originally published by the Elcano Royal Institute on 10 January 2020.

Theme

To what extent will the European Commission’s efforts to promote a rationalisation of the European defence industry be based on a common political and strategic vision about the future of European defence?

Denmark’s China Challenge

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This article was originally published by the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) on 29 October 2019.

A common refrain in Denmark is that China is too far away to be a threat to Danish economic, foreign and security policy interests. This is no longer the case. Danish policy-makers acknowledge that China’s rise as a global superpower presents Denmark with new challenges. However, transforming this strategic thinking into practice is no simple task.

The Future of the European Union: Scenarios for the Start of the New Legislature

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This article was originally published by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in November 2019.

A few months after the European Parliament elections, and a few weeks before a new European Commission is fully operational, the European Union is facing old and new challenges, both domestic and international.

The Risk of Selective Engagement in Relations between the EU and Russia

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This article was originally published by the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) on 23 October 2019.

Since the Russian aggression in Ukraine, relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation have been at an impasse. The EU has limited cooperation with Russia to the principle of selective engagement. This model lacks precise definition and is not conditional on changes in Russian politics, so may weaken the EU’s external policy and threaten the bloc’s security.