European Security and Defence Policy
How secure is Europe? Can and should Europe be able to defend itself? Is a unified defence policy agenda even possible?
Security and defence policy has not had such a direct impact on our everyday lives in a long time. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, large parts of Europe once again find themselves facing a real sense of threat. As a result, security policy debates around defence budgets and conscription are back at the centre of the political agenda. It’s also becoming clear that Europe needs to be able to pursue its own interests credibly and independently, at least to some extent, if it wants to keep pursuing “strategic sovereignty” in a shifting 21st-century world order. In short, there are plenty of reasons why the EU needs to work harder on its security and defence policy agenda.
In a multipolar world, the advantages of a united EU pursuing security and defence goals together — rather than each country going its own way — are obvious. But that runs up against the sheer diversity of interests among individual member states.
We want to unpack this complex situation and work out what a future European defence union and multilateral cooperation could look like, in substance and in form. To do this, we develop scenarios, run workshops, write papers, and connect young people interested in the topic with established institutions such as the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Defence, the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), and members of the Bundestag.
As always at Polis180, the thematic focus of our work is set by the members of our project. If you’d like to bring your own ideas to the table, just come along to one of our regular meetings and meet other engaged people working on these issues.
