Europe
Strengthening the heart of global cooperation
The Working Group Europe explores Europe's role in global security, covering EU foreign policy, NATO dynamics, and regional conflicts. It assesses economic security, defence cooperation, and the continent's response to emerging threats. Monthly briefings provide fact-based analyses and visualisations, offering insights into Europe's evolving geopolitical landscape and its influence on international stability.
Cyberattacks on EU Critical Infrastructure
Which EU critical infrastructure sectors face the greatest cyber risk, and which threat modalities are most active? The EU threat environment is bifurcated: high-volume DDoS/hacktivism pressures availability, while lower-volume intrusions cause high-consequence outcomes like ransomware and data t…
Resilient Roots: EU Tech Grants for Farmers
How can the EU accelerate climate tool adoption for smallholders in Africa and SE Asia without increasing financial risk? Loan-based models create debt burdens during crop failures; thus, a grant-based instrument within the NDICI-Global Europe framework is essential to fund both technology and lo…
Hybrid Security Regimes in Practice
Hybrid security regimes are deliberate political strategies that expand state influence through flexible, state-aligned networks rather than relying solely on formal institutions.
Why Europe Can’t Go It Alone on Chips: An Interview with Andreas Schumacher
Andreas Schumacher is the head of corporate strategy and M&A at Infineon Technologies in Munich. In 2024, he worked as a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has a PhD in Physics from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
What Post-Brexit Britain Can Learn From the Past
Britain’s strategy has long relied on alliances, balancing Europe, and deterring Russia. Today, sustaining that approach requires adapting to new global realities and rebuilding domestic strength.
Prioritisation Matters: The Case for Grand Strategy
Marina Henke is Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School and Director of the Centre for International Security in Berlin. Her research covers grand strategy and nuclear security. She holds a PhD from Princeton and published Best Practices in Grand Strategy Design (2025).
From Medicine to Military Tech
From Medicine to Military Tech A Founder’s Journey Himmel: Dr. Andres, you are a doctor, and now you sell optics and advocate for the idea that “defence is a human right.” How did that come about? Dr. Andres: Well, I didn’t start directly in the defence sector. During my studies, I had a PDA, som…
What to Buy in Future? Recalibrating European Defence Spending to Decrease Structural Dependencies
Europe has raised defense spending but remains structurally dependent on US manufacturers. As the US shifts focus elsewhere, this dependency risks limiting Europe’s capability during a potential Russian attack. To become a sovereign security actor, the EU must gradually build its own supply chain…
Reconfiguring Europe’s Forward Presence on the Eastern Flank
NATO’s Eastern Flank posture shifted from tripwire to forward defence, but a US withdrawal strains credibility. Facing Russian threats, Europe must build autonomous heavy-force deployment and logistics, using coalitions like JEF or MNC-Ukraine to offset reduced US support.
A Doctrine Before a Strategy: Building the Preconditions of European Grand Strategic Reasoning
Evaluating the European Union’s security architecture reveals that strategic documents often perform the grammar of grand strategy without establishing its functional logic. To overcome functional splintering and institutional circularity, the EU should adopt a binding Grand Strategy Doctrine und…
Investing in Security: How EU Fiscal Rules Undermine European Strategic Autonomy
Europe’s rearmament is real, but it rests on a temporary fiscal exemption that expires in 2028. Electoral cycles and EU fiscal rules systematically penalise long-term strategic investment, which is why Europe keeps arriving at each crisis underprepared. This paper proposes a permanent Security In…
Investment Arbitration’s New Architecture
Investment Arbitration’s New Architecture How UNCITRAL and ICSID reforms are reshaping investor–State dispute settlement The reform of investor–State dispute settlement (ISDS) is in a structural phase. Since 2017, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group I…
From Sovereignty to Sustainability
From Sovereignty to Sustainability: Natural Resources and Investment Protection in International Economic Law Natural resources represent a cornerstone of international economic relations. This relevance relies, on the one hand, on the fact that states depend on them as drivers of development and…
Strategic non-nuclear weapons and the NPT
Strategic non-nuclear weapons and the NPT: Revisiting the binary distinction of Article IX(3) The emergence of strategic non-nuclear weapons (SNNW) has blurred the line between conventional and nuclear warfare, necessitating a re-evaluation of how states are classified in global arms control regi…
Status of Legal Coalitions in an Increasingly Multipolar World
By early 2026, the European Union began speaking in a new tone, calling for a revision of its doctrine, institutions, and decision-making amid rising global contestation. In response to a shifting international order, the EU must pursue ‘principled flexibility’: defending core multilateral rules,…
Rise of the Rest
Amid geopolitical uncertainty, this article explores how Ireland can leverage its strong relationship with the US to promote democratic values internationally. It argues that small states are not passive actors but influential partners capable of shaping global affairs through strategic diplomacy.
The Global Disorder Cycle
This article asks whether history follows recurring cycles of recession and expansion or unfolds by chance. It argues that downturns reflect a persistent cyclical pattern rather than isolated events, concluding that while these cycles evolve, their underlying logic remains constant.
From Fragmentation to Flexibility
How can the EU design digital infrastructure ensuring both security and civil rights for times of peace and crisis? The answer lies in resilience by design, through frameworks like the EUDI Wallet, NIS2 Directive, and the IEA, which create distributed, interoperable system. This proactive archite…
The Euro as an international currency
– Should the ECB push the Euro internationally to incentivise smaller economies to take the Euro on as their anchor currency? – The general trend point towards a de-risking internationally with countries increasingly preferring baskets over a single currency, and the most attractive policy remain…
Who Controls Money?
How do cryptocurrencies affect financial stability and security compared to gold? Both rely on scarcity but differ in relation to state power. Gold is embedded in state systems and supports stability, while cryptocurrencies enable decentralized transfers outside institutions. This weakens sanctio…