Read more about the article The European Union Mission in Armenia: Potential for Expansion in the South Caucasus?
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The European Union Mission in Armenia: Potential for Expansion in the South Caucasus?

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenian-Azeri ethnic tensions in the South Caucasus have severely escalated. This culminated in the First Karabakh War between 1988 and 1994, where Armenia prevailed (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 2006). The war concluded without a formal peace agreement and Armenia took control of border territories internationally acknowledged as Azerbaijani (Mulcaire, 2015). This included Nagorno-Karabakh, a region within Azerbaijan inhabited by an ethnically Armenian population that has historically been governed by an autonomous Armenian administration (RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 2006). This region has been the focal point of the recent conflict. This Info Flash will examine the ongoing Armenian-Azerbaijani border crises, which especially affects the welfare and human rights of the Nagorno-Karabakh region’s population. It will discuss the complex alliances and balance of forces in the South Caucasus. This is essential to understanding the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA), an ongoing EU operation seeking to facilitate a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

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29 August 2023
Read more about the article 6th Generation Fighter Jets Development Implications for European Air Forces Interoperability
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6th Generation Fighter Jets Development Implications for European Air Forces Interoperability

Through a winding journey European industrial cooperation developed the 4th generation Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet in the early 2000s (Heinrich, 2015). European countries, however, eventually missed an opportunity with the following generation, relying instead on the American-made F-35 Lightning II. Therefore, European states are now eager to make up for lost ground by developing a 6th generation fighter jet. Two parallel projects are underway. Firstly, France, Germany and Spain are jointly working on the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), a programme intended to develop a Next Generation Weapon System (NGWS) with a Next Generation Fighter (NGF) at its core. Second, Japan recently joined the UK and Italy in developing the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), a follow-up of the Tempest project similarly intended to deliver a 6th generation fighter. 

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28 August 2023
Read more about the article The EU as a Security Actor in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Implications of Secessionist Threats from Republika Srpska
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The EU as a Security Actor in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Implications of Secessionist Threats from Republika Srpska

Approximately 100,000 people died in the 1992-1995 three-way war between the Orthodox Serbs, the Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina (The Economist, 2019). The Western-brokered Dayton Accords ultimately ended the fighting by dividing the country into two entities: the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska (RS) and the Federation, where Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats share power (The Economist, 2022). The constitution adopted after the war thus implemented territorial separation along ethnic lines (Bojicic-Dzelilovic, 2015, p. 1). There is a risk, however, that these ethnic lines become borders. This Info Flash explores the European Union (EU) as a security actor in the region with regard to recent secessionist threats from Republika Srpska.

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11 August 2023
Read more about the article Tackling Corruption in the European Defence Sector: Challenges and Ways Forward
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Tackling Corruption in the European Defence Sector: Challenges and Ways Forward

On 9 December 2022, Eva Kaili, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and then one of the institution’s fourteen Vice Presidents, was arrested in possession of €150,000 in cash (Malingre & Stroobants, 2023). Kaili was subsequently charged with corruption, expelled from the Socialists & Democrats group in the European Parliament and suspended in her role of Vice President (Stamouli, 2022). The charges brought against Kaili were partly the result of a broader investigation into Qatari, Moroccan and Mauritanian influence over European officials in which €1.5m was seized and four individuals were charged with corruption (Matriche et al., 2022). This scandal raised awareness on the issue of corruption and rendered evident that its presence remains a reality. European officials have started to pay increasing attention to the issue since then and are proposing tougher measures to counter corruption. At a time when the European defence industry is booming, it is crucial to be wary of the risks of corruption that this entails.

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11 August 2023
Read more about the article Defence Populism: The Fixation on Sovereignty and Its Effects on Security and Interoperability
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Defence Populism: The Fixation on Sovereignty and Its Effects on Security and Interoperability

Right-wing populists are increasingly competing for government participation, occasionally with success. Austria, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Italy and Poland are just a few examples of European Union (EU) Member States that have seen populist parties as part of the governing coalition in recent years (Destradi et al., 2021, p. 663). While this kind of politics often seems far from military operations and their technical nature, they determine the resources and attention given to them. Populists often find other priorities than multilateral defence cooperation (Ivaldi & Zankina, 2023). This is particularly concerning at a time when European security is under threat. Less military support for Ukraine may, for example, directly affect the security situation in the rest of Europe. This Info Flash will investigate the impact of right-wing populism in EU Member States on defence and security matters, particularly on interoperability. To achieve this, I will first analyse the existing literature on defence populism. After that, these findings will be synthesised, tying them to EU security policies and the interoperability of land forces. At last, concluding remarks shall be made.

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10 August 2023