Putting the EU’s Global Strategy into action

The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques), together with a European consortium of think tanks, is working on a project commissioned by the European Defence Agency to provide concrete and actionable proposals to implement the European Union’s Global Strategy.

The project “Putting the EUGS into action: developing EU/EDA added value in support of security and defence” is aimed at analysing how to concretize the provisions contained in the EUGS, as far as they are of direct relevance to EDA and its overall mission. While examining the gaps identified between the political level of ambition set up by the EUGS and the status quo, the project seeks to bridge the capability gaps identified, to reap the full potential of European treaties, to increase EDA added value in support of Member States (MS) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The study takes both a short-term and a medium-term perspective, and includes the identification of steps to be taken in the 2017-2020 timeframe.

The Consortium selected by EDA is led by the International Affairs Institute (Istituto Affari Internazionali – IAI) and comprises four European think tanks – the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael), the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques – IRIS), the Polish Institute of International Affairs (Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych – PISM) and the Elcano Royal Institute (Real Instituto Elcano – RIE) – as well as three Associate Experts from the Center of European Policy Studies (CEPS), the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik – SWP).

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.).