EU Grand Strategy After Ukraine: What Way Forward?

On 16 January 2023, the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy (CSDS) at the VUB, organised a panel debate on the topic of  “European Union grand strategy after Ukraine: what way forward?” featuring Dr. Nathalie Tocci, Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, Dr. Thomas Gomart, Director of the Institut Français des Relations Internationales, and Prof. Luuk van Middelaar, historian and political theorist, a founder of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics. This CSDS 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 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.

How does the war in Ukraine affect the priorities and operating principles framing EU foreign policy and external action at large? What balance between protection and projection among the EU’s priorities? Can the EU play a global role while coping with a destabilised neighbourhood? What are the war’s implications for Europe’s internal cohesion – a key ingredient of any effective grand strategy? Is the experience of the war in Ukraine helping shape a common European strategic culture? These were some of the questions addressed during the discussion.

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.