1. Strength in numbers? Comparing EU military capabilities in 2009 with 1999
- Author:
- Daniel Keohane and Charlotte Blommestijn
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- European Union Institute for Security Studies
- Abstract:
- EU governments formally launched the European Security and Defence Policy (now renamed the Common Security and Defence Policy) in lune 1999, shortly after NATO's war in Kosovo. That war exposed huge equip¬ment gaps between US and European armed forces. Euopeans did not have adequate transport or communica¬tions equipment, or enough deployable soldiers. Since the Helsinki summit in December 1999 therefore, EU governments have committed themselves to a number of military reform plans. The essential aim of these plans has been to develop more useful equipment for international peacekeeping, such as transport planes and helicopters, and encourage a reform of national armies oriented away from territorial defence towards external deployments.
- Topic:
- Security and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Kosovo, and Balkans