[Etude] Defence Budgets and Cooperation in Europe: Developments, Trends and Drivers

Edited by Alessandro Marrone, Olivier de France and Daniele Fattibene

The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs has published a study analysing European defence spending and cooperation in a changing international environment.

Entitled Defence Budgets and Cooperation in Europe: Developments, Trends and Drivers, the study highlights current trends in European defence spending and cooperation. It aims to tease out both driving factors and perspectives for the short to medium term, with a view to exploiting opportunities for defence cooperation among European states.

The study begins with an analysis of the defence spending landscape in 2015 and 2016 among 31 European countries, while outlining possible future developments. It then analyses how defence cooperation in Europe has unfolded at the bilateral, regional and mini-lateral levels in 2015. The concluding chapter highlights six trends that have accompanied recent developments in European defence cooperation, while identifying five drivers that have played a role in fuelling defence spending and cooperation among European countries.

The publication is partially based on the analysis of open source information conducted within a project led by the Institute and funded by the European Defence Agency. It is the product of cooperative research involving leading European think tanks such as the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM), the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), as well as an Associated Expert from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI).

The French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs (IRIS) is one of the main independent European Think Tanks on geopolitical and strategic issues. IRIS addresses a broad range of geostrategic issues and works for public bodies (ministries, European institutions, Parliament, international organisations) and for private companies, for which it conducts studies and training. In addition to this it organises around fifty events a year (seminars, conferences, breakfasts, etc.).