*** GIOVANNI GREVI, DAMIEN HELLY, DANIEL KEOHANE (Eds.): European Security and Defence Policy: the First 10 Years (1999-2009). European Union Institute for Security Studies (43 av. du Président Wilson, F-75775 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 56891930 - Fax: 56891931 - email: info@iss.europa.eu - Internet: http://www.iss.europa.eu ). 2009, 448 pp. ISBN 978-92-9198-157-1.
The European Union Institute for Security Studies is not a common-or-garden think tank. Its status as an official and autonomous agency means that it can work on behalf of the European Union and formulate analysis and recommendations that may then be used by decision-makers. Its contributions must therefore be constructive although that does not prevent it from making them scientifically rigorous, of course, and therefore also independent, reporting on stubborn facts and reality, whether they be convenient or not. Such freedom of thought is priceless in this book of essays examining in detail the progress and problems encountered in the development of the European Security and Defence Policy generated by the European Council of Cologne in June 1999, in the wake of the Franco-British Saint Malo statement.
In the first part of the book, the authors look at the institutions and bodies piloting the policy in question and the decision-making processes involved. The second chapter looks at resources at the policy's disposal for carrying out military and civilian operations, and then examines partners involved in the new situation, like the United Nations, NATO, the OSCE and the African Union. The second part of the book looks in greater detail at the twenty-three missions launched under the European Security and Defence Policy since 2003, providing readers with detailed, reliable analysis as all the authors are recognised, independent experts. Their analysis is based on contact with European civil servants, Member States' diplomats and stakeholders on the ground, drawing positive and negative lessons from the operations in Europe (Bosnia Herzegovina, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and Kosovo), Africa (Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, the Central African Republic and Guinea Bissau), the Middle East (Iraq and the Palestinian Territories) and Asia (Indonesia and Afghanistan). Each analysis is preceded by a fact sheet explaining the mission's legality, duration, budget, manpower and countries involved.
It emerges from this wealth of information that the European Security and Defence Policy is a success but cannot rest on its laurels, as the book highlights promising good practice for the future but, as Alvaro de Vasconcelos, the European Union Institute for Security Studies points out, it has three major defects, namely the weakness of the EU common foreign and security policy, lack of coherence and inadequate capabilities. In the conclusion, the three editors argue that it is vital to achieve a better connection between the CFSP and the CSDP in the future, which will require Member States to make progress on a 'shared vision' of what it as stake in the world. The monitoring operation in Georgia was effective because it was based on strong 'political cohesion' among the EU27, but the opposite applies to Afghanistan, the Palestinian Territories and Kosovo… The authors also argue for stronger institutions and a better-oiled decision-making process, for 'expansion, or better use, of the resources available' and a boosting of partnerships with international organisations. The future is to be constructed in the light of five common-sense lessons that are not very likely to be properly learned by political decision-makers, who are still stuck in the rut of the intergovernmentalism that tends to predominate in this domain …
Pierre Bouvier
*** ALVARO DE VASCONCELOS (Ed.): What ambitions for European defence in 2020? European Union Institute for Security Studies (see above). 2009, 188 pp. ISBN 978-92-9198-158-8.
This book is in a way a natural follow-up to the preceding tome because the previous book drew up a detailed balance sheet of ten years of implementation of the European Security and Defence Policy and this one makes an important contribution to the strategic future debate, based on the Lisbon Treaty, about the Common Security and Defence Policy in the next ten years. With a preface by former EU High Representative Javier Solana, this revised edition of the book examines the expectations generated by the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty in order to discern the EU's ambitions for defence and security and how it might put them into practice, from the viewpoint of both practitioners and politicians. The topics examined range from the nature and geographical scope of missions to the creation of a European defence market via questions surrounding the roots underpinning the policy's legitimacy, intra-European solidarity and relations with NATO. In a foreword, the director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies, Alvaro de Vasconcelos, points out that 'to 'multilateralise' the emerging multipolarity' will be increasingly the 'European Union's strategic ambition,' with the way of the world not leaving it any option in this connection, not even for the big Member States. The EU should remain a 'civilian power' above all, but with 'military capability' so that it doesn't preach in the wilderness. This means that in order to avoid failure, it must 'speak with a single voice in all international institutions,' including NATO, which must never 'become or indeed be seen as an alliance of the West against the Rest.' Hence 'the old transatlantic paradigm' must turn into a 'comprehensive strategic partnership' in the service of 'effective multilateralism,' and this, Nicole Gnesotto argues, means that the EU's relationship with NATO must stop encouraging the 'stagnation' of the European Security and Defence Policy. The authors argue that with Obama, the time seems ripe for such a change to develop but the EU will have to lead its Common Foreign and Defence Policy beyond the status quo and overcome its shortcomings of coherence and joint capabilities. It will also have to increase the legitimacy of its Common Security and Defence Policy. These challenges are included in the authors' list of ten priorities.
(PBo)
*** ERIC REMACLE, PASCALINE WINAND (Eds.): America, Europe, Africa - L'Amérique, l'Europe, l'Afrique 1945-1973. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes / Peter Lang (1 av. Maurice,
B-1050 Brussels. Tel: (41-32) 3761717 - Fax: 3761727 - email: info@peterlang.com - Internet: http://www.peterlang.com ). European Policy / Cité européenne, No. 44. 2009, 329 pp, €37-50.
ISBN 978-90-5201-529-3.
Alfred Cahen died too soon, but proved to be one of the most symbolic Belgian diplomas in the last century and his career led him to delve into areas that were, and still are, key Belgian concerns, like Belgium's relations with its former colonies in Africa, especially the Congo (Cahen was a diplomat in Kinshasa before and after the country's independence), followed by transatlantic relations and the European project, particularly the slow emergence of a Europe of defence, a task to which he made a personal contribution by becoming Secretary General of the Western European Union in 1985. Cahen was quick-witted and courteous, described as an engaging, debonair charmer. He ended his career as Belgium's ambassador to France, but never abandonned his teaching post at the 'Université Libre de Bruxelles'. In this book, former students pay tribute to a man who, in the ins and outs of international politics, was always where international politics were thought up, designed and put into action. He made a lasting impression, being a master at inspiring a taste and understanding for international relations. After a general overview of the period by historian Pierre Gerbet, the first part of this book looks at the main areas of transatlantic relations in the period in question and the challenges of post-war reconstruction in Europe, the role played by the United States and development of the transatlantic partnership from Truman to Nixon. The second part of the book looks at attempts to integrate Europe militarily, with Prof. Remacle describing the development of the Western European Union during the Cold War, and Evgeny Kuznetsov (of the European University Institute of Florence) describing the meanderings of the multilateral force and problems with setting up a 'nuclear Europe'. The final section of the book looks at Belgian Africa, with historian Etienne Decamps examining it in light of the failed European Political Community in the early 1950s. (MT)
*** JEAN-CLAUDE WILLAME: La Guerre du Kivu. Vues de la salle climatisée et de la véranda. Editions GRIP (Groupe de Recherche et d'Information sur la Paix et la Sécurité, 70 rue de la Consolation, B-1030 Brussels. Tel: (32-2) 2418420 - Fax: 2451933 - email: admi@grip.org - Internet: http://www.grip.org ). 'Les livres du GRIP' series, Nos. 297-298. 2010, 172 pp, €13.90. ISBN 978-2-87291-026-7.
This academic book by an emeritus professor at the 'Université Catholique de Louvain' in Belgium, with the reputation of being one of Belgium's leading experts on the Congo, who works on Amnesty International's Central African Coordination Team, enables readers to understand the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighbouring countries, along with the war in Kivu, from an unusual two-pronged interpretation - from the veranda (in other words, on the ground), where 'large or small agents of the state or the political elites battle for survival, their salary and the new 'acquired rights' to what is known as the 'peace dividend'; and from the 'air-conditioned rooms' where meetings take place of international organisation officials, donors and top politicians, who follow mutually-agreed notions like 'democracy' and 'good governance' that each is free to interpret in their own way. On the latter category, the author points out the 'restrictions' of the 'middling' power of the European Union, which is best known in Central Africa as a 'cash machine'. Although the 2006 elections in the Congo acted as the prime driver of EU action, the author also points out that the term 'democracy' does not match the reality in the Congo in any way, and the EU (like other donors) had to go along with the introduction of democratic institutional artefacts that are nothing like the 'new governance' officially promoted by the EU. With the same critical spirit, the author goes on to explain the 'avatars' of introducing EU-run conflict management, with the Artemis operation only being successful in comparison with the United Nations' impotence. Moreover, people in French uniform had a far greater dissuasive influence than the UN's Blue Berets. The ambiguities and limits of later 'EU' action are described just as baldly, with the author going as far as asking whether use of the EU force amounted to no more than being taken for a rise within the aforementioned acclimatised rooms.
(MT)
*** COLETTE BRAECKMAN (Ed.): Congo 1960. Échec d'une décolonisation. Éditions GRIP (see above) and André Versaille Éditeur (Internet: http://www.andreversailleediteur.com ). 2010, 156 pp, €14-90. ISBN 978-2-87495-078-0.
A collection of articles written in the 1990s, apart from the introduction by journalist Colette Braeckman, this book is a useful publication in the run-up to the fiftieth anniversary of independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the first section, the authors describe the origins of the 'Belgian' colonial enterprise, going on to examine the powers that governed it and gave it a radically different character from the other colonial countries of the time. In the second section, they describe and explain the turbulent epoch that led up to Congo's independence and the political imbroglios and series of clashes that followed during a time when 'Belgium seemed to play a double game as the UN was getting bogged down'. With the passing of time, peace has arrived and appeased passions, but this has happened more in Belgium than in Congo itself where references to the coloniser remain very present psychologically. This is a very useful book because it looks back to the origins of the tragedies and problems experienced by the Congo and therefore also has a lot to say about Belgium.
(MT)
*** DAMIEN HELLY (Ed.): Post-2011 scenarios in Sudan: What role for the EU? European Union Institute for Security Studies (see above). "ISS Reports", No. 6. 2009, 72 pp.
This study by a group of experts is the fruit of a research project started in 2008 by the European Union Institute for Security Studies in order to examine post-2011 scenarios for Sudan. Four options are examined - forced unity, forced secession, unity by mutual agreement and secession by mutual agreement. The authors agree that separation of the north and the south of the country is inevitable and is unfortunately unlikely to be a peaceful affair. For this reason, the research examines the possible fall-out in order to limit the damage as far as possible in Africa and the Middle East, two strategic regions in the EU's Neighbourhood Policy. The EU argues that that the EU should pragmatically assume that the south will separate off, and should therefore focus its efforts on drawing up a peaceful co-existence strategy that would include African and Arab powers and the United States. The essays by economists and political scientists are based on discussions at a seminar organised by the European Union Institute for Security Studies in June 2009 that draw attention to the fact that despite Sudan's good macroeconomic performance, violent conflict prevention and management will still be necessary for decades to come.
(NDu)