Eurodefense Nederland nieuws

1. From Internal to External Focus Ursula von der Leyen coined the term 'Geopolitical Commission' in the autumn of 2019. A global orientation for the Union seemed like a radical change. But it is, of course, a gross exaggeration to claim that the Union only looked inward before; all internal issues inherently have an external dimension.

  EWG 18 - 30 Strengthen European defence – some perspectives  30 March 2023 On 18 May 2022, the European Commission published a Communication analysing, at the request of the Council, deficits in defence investment and possible remedies to overcome them. This document clearly highlights the need for Europeans to better work together, especially at a time when military expenditures will increase sharply in response to the war in Ukraine and draws some perspectives.

From War on the Rocks: ''With NATO, the United States often tries to have it all: U.S. leadership of the alliance and increased allied burden-sharing. Indeed, in   addressing   the Munich Security Conference in February 2021, President Joe Biden emphasized to allies that that the “U.S. is back” and is determined “to earn back our position of trusted leadership,” while welcoming “Europe’s growing investment in the military capabilities that enable our shared defense.”

C ompeting visions of European strategic autonomy have been widely debated in European Union (EU) policy circles. The term itself has undergone a fast evolution: from an initial focus on defence to inclusion of a much broader set of security considerations such as the economy, health or technology, to name just a few. At its core, however, the concept retains an important defence dimension.

The Strategic Compass for the EU’s security and defence policy, to be adopted in 2022, must generate immediate action. The best way of ensuring that is to prepare new capability initiatives and, potentially, new operational engagements now, so that they can be launched simultaneously with the Strategic Compass. In that light, “the development of an initial-entry force as a pool of Member State forces that train and exercise together and are made available to the EU” (as summarised in an EEAS working paper), is one of the most promising ideas on the table. How to make it work? Photo Credits: New Zealand Defence Force from Wellington, New Zealand, Wikimedia Commons

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...