The Road to Atlantic: China’s naval projection

In the past decades, China has profoundly invested in the modernization of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) moving China to the first position as the world’s largest maritime force with its size expected to grow in the future (U.S. Department of Defense 2021). Whereas China’s initial goal is to strengthen its Navy to match or surpass the United States global influence or power in the Indo-Pacific region, it is also to project its forces to protect China’s national interests abroad and gain a more important place in the international system. In doing so, China is using a combination of economic, political, and military tools, under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to evade the United States’ containment strategy and secure its strategic position.

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Training a New Generation of Soldiers: the Use of Simulation Systems in the Swedish Armed Forces

Since armies existed, countries faced the need to train them. In fact, the level of training and the modernisation of the equipment, tactics, morale, and other factors less reliant on human capital determine an army’s strength. This article aims at underlying how training techniques for the military are currently undergoing the biggest leap forward they have witnessed since the adoption of firearms. Here the author will take advantage of this topic to present his first-hand experience with modern-day military training techniques involving simulators.

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The New German Vision of the EU as a Geopolitical Power: Implications of the “zeitendwende” Doctrine for the EU’s Security and Defence (Part II) 

On Monday 29th August 2022, the German Chancellor gives one of the founding speeches of  the future Germany’s EU policy. Four years after Emmanuel Macron’s Sorbonne speech, Olaf Scholz drew in sand 4 pillars of upcoming changes for the EU as a geopolitical creature and global power. But just " noting a change of era does not yet make a programme " (Mennerat, 2022) and since EU already operate deep change at its levels. In this second part, this paper will intents to explore from a legal point of view what such a doctrine could implies for EU’s defence and security future but also for it bilateral and multilateral cooperation, regarding the most substantial proposals made the German Chancellor to build a new German’s impulsed EU policy. 

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Interoperability Between European Armed Forces in 2022

The security environment in Europe has and is still experiencing significant changes in its configuration. If the 2016 referendum and the United Kingdom’s exit from the Europe- an Union – the so-called Brexit – significantly altered the nature and level of defence cooper- ation on the continent. Seemingly in the long term, the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine reminded all Europeans how not cooperating with countries sharing the same values and principles was not a strategically sensible approach and even created unneces- sary risks for the concerned nations.

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Prioritising European Security Flanks: Extrapolating the EU’s Geopolitical Power to Ukraine

The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), put into motion by the Maastricht Treaty, was supposed to underpin the EU's actorness and strengthen its defence capabilities. CSDP brings ‘an operational capacity to deploy civilian and military missions abroad’ (EEAS, 2022). Consequently, when it comes to interoperability per se, it should be considered from two perspectives: the technical and 'political' ones. The former envisages enhancing the cooperation among land forces on the ground while the latter grows in reaching coherence, efficiency and, even more critical – solidarity in pursuing the agreed strategy (Strategic Compass, 2022).

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