01: New Approaches to Security – Cooperation, Concentration and Integration

Decision-makers in European security and defence matters have to navigate a triangle of adaptation pressures: In the wake of the financial and economic crisis, defence budgets have come under severe pressure as governments have focused on overall budget consolidation. Secondly, it looks as though two decades of major overseas operations are drawing to a close with the vast majority of Western forces returning from their engagement in Afghanistan or the Western Balkans in 2014. While there is no doubt that future operational demands will arise, NATO in particular has to manage a transition from deployments to contingencies. Thirdly, the re-orientation of the US towards Asia has underlined that Europe will have to shoulder a greater share of the responsibility for global peace and security. Many commentators and observers of these adaptation pressures have suggested that intensified cooperation among European countries on security and defence matters would provide the only way forward to successfully generate the capacity and political will needed. Yet, in practice governments have been slow to embrace this logic. This seminar provides an opportunity to understand decision-making structures in security and defence, to analyse the pressures for greater cooperation as well as the obstacles that stand in the way, and to examine on-going initiatives for closer collaboration in NATO and the EU.

Topics are:
1) Introduction: Adaptation Pressures in the International Security Environment
2) Decision-Making in Security and Defence: Key Actors and Processes
3) The Merits and Perils of Cooperation in Security and Defence
4) Current Initiatives: Smart Defence in NATO, Pooling and Sharing in the EU
5) Conclusion: A Roadmap for Closer Cooperation?