Belgian Defence in 2018: Regeneration time?
The Belgian defence budget for 2018 increases by a factor of 4.7 in commitment credits. Not only does this allow for offsetting the significant investment shortfalls of the previous years, […]
Publications
EU cyber partnerships: Assessing the EU strategic partnerships with third countries in the cyber domain
The European Union is increasingly active on cyber issues internationally, guided by its various foreign policy documents and strategies, including its 2013 Cybersecurity Strategy and the 2015 Council conclusions on […]
PESCO: Good News for NATO from the EU
Good news: the US and, in its wake, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, are getting concerned about the EU’s defence plans. Those should not lead to a duplication of NATO, nor […]
The quest for a regional order in the Middle East
The Middle East is once again going through a period of war and upheaval, including mass murder of civilians, state failure, transnational terrorism, sectarian wars, physical and societal destruction, massive […]
ASEAN under Singapore’s chairmanship
Singapore formally assumed the role of ASEAN chair from the Philippines on 1 January 2018. Considering the frequent use of the phrase ‘resilience and innovation’, the overarching sentiment suggests that […]
Returnees: who are they, why are they (not) coming back and how should we deal with them? Assessing policies on returning foreign terrorist fighters in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands
Some 5000 men, women and children have travelled from Europe to Syria and Iraq since 2012. An estimated 1500 of these foreign terrorist fighters (FTF) have returned so far. Belgium, […]