Federica Mogherini at a press confernce in the Netherlands, September 2016. Wikicommons/ EU2016 NL. Some rights reserved. The publication of the EU Global Strategy (EUGS) on 28 June 2016 by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini represents the final result of a two year-long work that has involved extensive consultations with EU member states, European experts and scholars, and third countries representatives.
The Global Strategy represents a much needed improvement on the European Security Strategy (2003) which stated: “The violence of the first half of the 20th Century has given way to a period of peace and stability unprecedented in European history”. Given the deteriorating geopolitical situation in the southern and eastern neighbourhoods of the EU in recent years, it was obvious that this was no longer in touch with realities on the ground.
However, despite the Global Strategy’s recognition that the EU’s neighbourhood has transformed from a ‘ring of friends’ into a ‘ring of fire’, it remains vague on key concepts such as strategy, hybrid wars, and terrorism.
