The future of European Security in a time of strategic discontinuity: A French Perspective

The future of European Security in a time of strategic discontinuity:  A French Perspective

About the Speech:

Francois Heisbourg, Special advisor with France\'s Foundation pour la recherche strategique and a former Director of the IISS in London, described  implications for security doctrine and institutional security architecture arising from the modern security context.  The modern security context is characterised by “strategic discontinuity” or “la rupture strategique” as it is described in the recent French White Paper on defence.Prof Heisbourg remarked that “There is a greater potential for systemic disruption in the world as a consequence of globalization’ and that nowadays ‘Every crisis has, ab initio, the potential to go global”. On account of such increased connectivities Prof Heisbourg added that the “Nature of security challenges becomes multidimensional” with the result that the severity of crises will be greater today than in the past.  This greater severity combined with less predictability and greater indivisibility of modern security threats poses serious implications for Security policy. Prof Heisbourg offered an overview of how France was adapting to this modern security context with reference to the contents of the White Paper on Defence to which he was a contributor. Moving to the European dimension, Mr Heisbourg commented that countries must aim to get their respective national doctrines correct before improving coordination mechanisms and the ability to pool resources. Prof Heisbourg highlighted the EU’s strong capability to set norms pointing to the Kyoto protocol and the International Criminal Court as EU-led initiatives. He claimed that the EU could act as a collective actor using instruments such as the Common Arrest Warrant and not only at the intergovernmental level at the demand of Member States.   In his opinion, the EU is often a more appropriate actor to other coalitions such as NATO and the “paradox’ of the Union’s Security and Defence Policy is that the EU has undertaken more civilian operations than military.    Finally, Prof Heisbourg voiced his support for the integration of the Council and Commission and an increased role for the office of the High Representative as contained in the Lisbon Treaty.

About the Speaker:

François Heisbourg (Chair) is special advisor at the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique in Paris, France, a position which he has held since May, 2005 after serving as director from 2001 until 2005. During the early part of his career, Mr. Heisbourg held positions with the French Foreign Ministry's policy planning staff and with the French Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. He served as an international security advisor to the French Minister of Defense and was a founding member of the French-German Commission on Security and Defense. He was vice president at Thomson-CSF and, in 1987, became director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London, where he is the current chairman. Mr. Heisbourg's professional foci include international security and disarmament, nuclear non-proliferation, terrorism, multilateral diplomacy, and European cooperative threat reduction. He chaired the Foundation Council of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, and the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and was a member of the Steering Committee of the French Government's White Paper on Terrorism. Mr. Heisbourg has attended several Salzburg Seminar sessions both as a Fellow and as a Faculty member and is a former member of the Salzburg Seminar's Board of Directors.

An audio copy of Prof Heisbourg\'s presentation will be available shortly.