[Study] Defence Budgets and Cooperation in Europe: Trends and Investments

Edited by Alessandro Marrone, Olivier de France and Daniele Fattibene

In the run-up to the NATO Warsaw Summit, the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs has published an edited file analysing European defence spending and cooperation in a changing international environment.

Entitled Defence Budgets and Cooperation in Europe: Trends and Investments, the study highlights recent trends in 31 European countries, with a view to exploiting opportunities for defence cooperation.

It is the second of a series of semestrial studies on defence budgets and cooperation in Europe.

The report provides an in-depth analysis of investments in defence equipment in 2016, including national specificities. It then analyses how defence cooperation in Europe has unfolded at the bilateral, regional, mini-lateral and multilateral levels in 2015-2016, with a particular focus on the roles played by Germany and the US.

It is partially based on the analysis of open source information conducted within a project led by the IAI and funded by the European Defence Agency. It is the product of cooperative research involving leading European think tanks such as the Istituto Affari Internazional (IAI), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), as well as an Associated Expert from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI).

The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) is one of the main independent European Think Tanks on geopolitical and strategic issues. IRIS addresses a broad range of geostrategic issues and works for public bodies (ministries, European institutions, Parliament, international organisations) and for private companies, for which it conducts studies and training. In addition to this it organises around fifty events a year (seminars, conferences, breakfasts, etc.).