Envisioning European defence – Five futures

13 April 2016 Chaillot Paper - N^o137 - Jan Joel Andersson, Sven Biscop, Bastian Giegerich, Christian Mölling, Thierry Tardy

This Chaillot Paper – a collective endeavour on which the five authors have collaborated – outlines five possible future scenarios for European defence. The aim is to develop plausible and coherent descriptions of what European defence might look like a decade or two from now in order to point out the choices and decisions that need to be made today.

A key assumption underpinning these hypotheses is that the future of European defence will be of Europeans’ own making rather than the outcome of external pressures and events.  Moreover, the publication highlights the fact that, whatever the future evolution of European defence policy, defence cooperation — which could take shape in many different ways — is essential if Europe is to be a global security actor in its own right.

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