EU Grand Strategy After Ukraine: Connecting the Strands

On Monday 12 December 2022, the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) at the VUB organised a panel debate on the topic of  “EU Grand Strategy After Ukraine: Connecting the Strands” featuring Shahin Vallée, Head of the Geo-economics Programme, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Kirsten Westphal, Executive director, Analysis and Research, H2 Global Stiftung, and Daniel Fiott, Head of the Defence and Statecraft Programme, CSDS. This roundtable was chaired by Dr. Giovanni Grevi, Senior Fellow at the CSDS.

This CSDS Debate aimed to explore the implications of the war in Ukraine for the grand strategy of the European Union (EU). Having a grand strategy means harnessing resources and networks across all policy domains in the pursuit of large strategic goals, based on a clear assessment of major threats, opportunities, and trade-offs. Whether any power, and a sui generis one like the EU in particular, has or consistently implements a grand strategy, is a matter for debate. However, at a time when war is back in Europe and the international order faces daunting challenges, there is a need for the EU to review its priority goals, the assets to achieve them, and how ends and means align.

The debate addressed some of the principal dimensions of grand strategy, namely economic, energy and defence policies, to explore how they can converge towards a larger, consistent strategic approach at EU level. How has the war in Ukraine affected policy priorities in these domains? What should the strategic objectives driving progress in each of these areas be? What measures are needed to tackle the weaknesses and harness the added value of the EU? How does action in respective domains relate to other policy fields, and to the main strategic goals of the EU?

This CSDS panel debate was a closed-door roundtable held under the Chatham House rule that brought together leading academics, think-tankers, and practitioners from Europe and across the world.