The European Union as a Global Strategic Actor
Name：
Sven Biscop
Nationality： Belgium
Academic
Title：
Professor
Home
University
（From）：
Egmont-Royal Institute of
International Relations
Email
Address：
s.biscop@egmontinstitute.be
Undergraduate
Master
English
Preferably a basic political science and international knowledge, sufficient
English to follow discussion
Lecture, class discussion, close reading of examples
Continuous assessment, participation：30%
Final Examination：70%
2 credits
Prof. Dr. Sven Biscop completed his degree in political sciences/public
administration at Ghent University (Belgium) by winning the best thesis award for
his work on European security and defense policy. He then gained the Paul-Henri Spaak
PhD scholarship of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, which he held from
1999 to 2002, when he defended his dissertation, published as Euro-Mediterranean
Security: A Search for Partnership (Ashgate, 2003).
Sven Biscop is Director of the Europe in the World Programme at Egmont – the Royal
Institute for International Relations, the think tank associated with Belgian
Foreign Affairs, which he joined in 2002, originally as a senior research fellow.
His research focuses on the foreign, security and defence policy of the European
Union. He is a Visiting Professor for European security at Ghent University (since
2003) and at the College of Europe in Bruges (since 2007). He is a Senior Research
Associate of the Centre for European Studies at th
This course deals with the emergence of the European Union (EU) as a global strategic
actor in its own right. If the EU has long been a global actor in the field of aid
and trade, it is increasingly becoming so in the fields of diplomacy and defence,
which will be the focus of the course.
The conceptual framework for the course is the comprehensive approach to security,
as expressed in the 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS), which can be considered
the EU’s mission statement, and the new EU Global Strategy for Foreign and Security
Policy (EUGS), to be adopted in June 2016.
The course will situate the Union’s strategic outlook in its political and conceptual
context and will analyse its orientations. It will then critically examine the
implementation of the ambitious objectives which the EU has set for itself.
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The Evolving Concept of Security
The European Security Strategy
The Future EU Global Strategy
The Institutional Mechanics of CFSP/CSDP
The European Neighbourhood Policy
Effective Multilateralism and the UN
CSDP: Operations and Capabilities
The Transatlantic Alliance and the US
- Sven Biscop, Peace without Money, War without Americans – Can European Strategy
Cope? Aldershot, Ashgate, Chapter 3.
- Robert Gates, Reflections on the Status and Future of the Transatlantic Alliance.
Speech delivered at the Security and Defence Agenda in Brussels on 10 June 2011.
http://www.securitydefenceagenda.org/Contentnavigation/Activities/Activitiesove
rview/tabid/1292/EventType/EventView/EventId/1070/EventDateID/1087/PageID/5141/
Reflectionsonthestatusandfutureofthetransatlanticalliance.aspx.
- The National Security Strategy of the US (2015 edition)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/2015_national_security_stra
tegy.pdf
- Kofi Annan, In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights
for All. Report of the Secretary General for Decision by Heads of State and Government
in September 2005, 21 March 2005.
(http://www.un.org/largerfreedom)
- Sven Biscop, The European Security Strategy – A Global Agenda for Positive
Power. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005, Chapter 2.
- Robert I. Rotberg, ‘Strengthening Governance: Ranking Countries Would Help’.
In: The Washington Quarterly, Vol. 28, 2004, No. 1, pp. 71–81.
- The ESS (http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf)
- The Report about the Implementation of the ESS
(http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/reports/10463
0.pdf)
- Sven Biscop, Peace without Money, War without Americans – Can European Strategy
Cope? Aldershot, Ashgate, Chapter 1.
- The European Union in a Changing Global Environment: A More Connected, Contested
and Complex World
http://eeas.europa.eu/docs/strategic_review/eu-strategic-review_strategic_revie
w_en.pdf
- Sven Biscop, Global and Operational: A New Strategy for EU Foreign and Security
Policy. Rome, IAI, 2015.
http://www.egmontinstitute.be/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/iaiwp1527-def.pdf
- European External Action Service, EEAS Review. Brussels, EEAS, 2013,
http://eeas.europa.eu/library/publications/2013/3/2013_eeas_review_en.pdf.
- Jochen Rehrl & Hans-Bernhard Weisserth (eds.), CSDP Handbook. Revised Edition.
Vienna, Federal Ministry of Defence and Sports, 2013.
http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/structures-instruments-agencies/european-securit
y-defence-college/pdf/handbook/handbook_csdp_2_auflage-revised.pdf
- Steffan Hamra, Thomas Raines and Richard Whitman, A Diplomatic Entrepreneur –
Making the Most of the European External Action Service. London, Chatham House, 2011.
http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/Europe/r1211_ee
as.pdf.