Eurodefense Nederland nieuws

In these episodes our hosts Joost van Iersel and Frédéric Mauro will offer fresh new insights into topics of E uropean   security  cooperation. In the first three episodes we are introduced to our hosts, who also talk about the state of security affairs in their respective countries; The Netherlands and France. In the last episode they both share their vision on European  StrategicAutonomy . Listen to the first three episodes on Soundcloud , Youtube , or Spotify .

Picture courtesy NL MoD Afghanistan: Can history tell us what to do? No, but history can certainly tell us what not to do! A personal view of Iric A. van Doorn ( Vice President Eurodefense Netherlands) Wassenaar (NL) 18 September 2021 The West, and in particular the USA, has a long history of often violent and usually unsuccessful attempts at regime changes. After the Cold War the US-neo-conservative global strategy was based on US supremacy and exceptionalism and its goal was global control. The act of terrorism of 9/11 was a consequence of the role of the USA in the Middle East; blind support for the State of Israel, the first Gulf war, activating Muslim activists to get the Russians out of Afghanistan and support for dictatorial regimes. 9/11 was utilized to realise US-expansion plans. The military invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq had a tenuous link with “hunting” a group of terrorists. That is a professional job for the police and the “Services”. We now know the consequences: Al Qa...

While the European Union’s defence-aerospace ambitions are clear, industrial fragmentation and conflicting national imperatives continue to act as impediments within the sector, explain Douglas Barrie and Niklas Ebert  from the International Institute for Strategic Studies. This continues to provide the United States with a large window of opportunity in the European market. 

1945 ushered in the nuclear era. Yet, the construction of a European project, with the ambitions to achieve economic integration and strategic cooperation, did not have an agenda on nuclear force and deterrence. French President Emmanuel Macron brought the issue back up in a speech delivered at the  Ecole de Guerre  in February 2020, during which he called upon European leaders to engage in a strategic dialogue on nuclear issues. This call has remained relatively unanswered, especially in Germany, which is strongly committed to pursuing European security through a NATO framework, and fears France’s proposal could threaten the transatlantic partnership.

The European Commission has formally launched the €8 billion European Defence Fund (EDF), a new instrument designed to co-finance collaborative defence research and development projects across the bloc. (Euractiv News)