In times of multinational crisis-management and peace-keeping missions, caring for returning soldiers and veterans is necessary. While some countries have long traditions of veteran care, others are still in search of adequate policies. The increased integration of women in the armed forces, supported by the plea for gender mainstreaming in the security sector, raised new questions regarding the need to adapt veteran policies to this demographical change.

Ms. Henrion will introduce female veterans’ issues of concern with the general veteran policy in the Armed forces as backdrop. Ms. Gya will share her knowledge and experience of gender mainstreaming and women’s needs in the security sector. The following discussion aims at raising the following questions: Do female soldiers and veterans need gender-specific services and care? How can female veterans be more at risk than male? What measures should be adopted? And how can we ensure their implementation? We hope that the identified needs and gaps will serve as basis for further research and reflection. EUROMIL will continue to defend and promote the interests and fundamental rights of military personnel.

A series of briefing paper: "Communicate, Coordinate and Cooperate - Cohering Crisis Management in the post-Lisbon Era."

This event, to be host by MEP Ana Maria Gomes, will present the next two draft papers on EU and mediation, by Antje Herrberg, and EU partners, by Richard Gowan.

Registration form below.

Each year, ISIS Europe organises the annual Brussels launch of the Peace Report produced by five leading German universities. The Peace Report 2011 takes stock of the revolutionary upheavals that have rocked the Arab world since late 2010. These events have surprised the European body politic. What does this say about the European Union? The Peace Report considers causes and discusses consequences.

For more information please see the Concept Note attached.

Sarwar A. Kashmeri, Senior Fellow of the Transatlantic Council (DC), Fellow of the Foreign Policy Association (NY) and ISIS Europe Senior Advisor, will present his new book "NATO 2.0 - Reboot or Delete?". 
The book launch will take place on 15 June at 10:30-12:00 in the Danube room at the International Press Centre, Boulevard Charlemagne 1, 1041 Brussels.

Joint ISIS Europe/FRIDE event. Chair, Giovanni Grevi, Brussels office FRIDE. Presentation of policy brief by ISIS Europe Executive Director Giji Gya. Responders: Richard Wright, Director Conflict Prevention and Security Policy, EEAS, and Miguel Ceballos Baron, Chief Economist, Global Europe Strategy - Trade Policy Strategy, European Commission.

The seminar will provide an opportunity
- to take stock of discussions on NATO’s nuclear policy around Europe
- to consider NATO’s future nuclear posture in the context of discussion about a strategic
missile defense system for the Alliance, and NATO-Russia relations
- to debate NATO’s role in nuclear arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation.

A series of dialogues to discuss how EU military and civilian crisis management missions are affecting those they are sent to assist. In the framework of CSDP MAP, these dialogues (Chatham House rules and by invite only) are designed to initiate and foster an ongoing exchange of views between CSDP MAP (including experience and voices from the ground) and Ambassadors from mission host countries on how missions are perceived.

- The second dialogue in the "Perspectives on CSDP" series brought together Ambassadors and high-ranking diplomats from Afghanistan, Georgia and Somalia, CSDP MAP partners and other civil society representatives and was supported by DCAF.  

- The initial dialogue in the "Perspectives on CSDP" series instigated "phase three" of CSDP MAP, bringing together H.E. Osman Topcagic, Ambassador of BiH to the EU and H.E. Ilir Dugolli, Ambassador of Kosovo to Belgium with CSDP MAP representatives and other senior experts. This inaugural session was supported by DCAF and the Network for Social Change.

http://www.csdpmap.eu/events

Speakers: Dr. Catriona Gourlay, Consultant and Research Fellow, UNIDIR; Jane Backhurst, Honorary Senior Fellow, Humanitarian Affairs, ISIS Europe; Sebastian Bloching, ISIS Europe. Guest speaker Dr. Antonio Missiroli, Head of European Dialogue Section, BEPA, European Commission.
 

2010 is a year of change in the EU institutions. The question was, how are the EU's policies and implementation going to be encompassed within this new structure.  Will there be an improvement in communication, coordination and cooperation? What resources and departments will lead the direction, now that the EU is aiming to 'depillarise' its previously contentious division of labour for crisis management - notably with Security Sector Reform (SSR). In particular, what will be the EAS's engagement in partnerships and with civil society - both in Brussels, the EU and in the field - and its role in humanitarian response?

This initial roundtable presented two working papers and two conceptual commentaries from established authors and institutes to preface this work and contributed towards the framework of this book. Based on the above questions, the speakers presented three initial analytical premises: political considerations behind CSDP missions; Humanitarian aid in the post-Lisbon era; civilian dimensions in Crisis Management; SSR under CSDP: identifying current needs.

Margret Johannsen's note on the launch of the Peace Report 2009. Palestine - Key Challenges for European Policy

European Security Contact Group meeting to launch the Peace Report 2010, this year focused on the option of transforming non-state violent actors into political citizens with a constructive role in society.

Hosted by MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski. Bringing together speakers from national representations as well as NATO and EU structures, the event will explore new avenues and facets for partnership between the two institutions.

Following the annual launch held in Stockholm in June , the presentation of  the SIPRI Yearbook 2009 to the Brussels audience was organised by ISIS Europe and hosted by MEPs Ana Gomes and Hannes Swoboda at the European Parliament. The Yearbook gives insights into recent developments in security-related fields of armament, disarmament and international security. Its extensive database, both in the book and online, is widely used as a definitive reference. Director of SIPRI, Dr. Bates Gill, provided a summary of the contents of the 2009 Yearbook. Invited to speak on the panel were: Carl Hartzell, Deputy Representative of Sweden to the Political Security Committee (PSC); Mika-Markus Leinonen, Director of DG E IX at the Council of the EU; and Heather Grabbe, Director of the Open Society Institute.

This European Security Contact group meeting focuses on the key challenges for European foreign, development and security policy for Palestine, based on this year’s edition of the Peace Report.

One authors and the editor of the Peace Report will present their analysis and the panel will hear commentary from the Council on the challenges from the security side and from the Commission on the challenges of development.

Chair: Giji Gya, Executive Director, ISIS Europe

Speakers:

Jochen Hippler, Institute for Development and Peace (INEF), coordinating co-editor of the 2009 Peace Report and author of '"The Decisive Battle is for the People's Minds" -- The Changing Character of War:

Implications for Peace, Security and Development Policy' chapter in the

2009 Peace Report

Margret Johannsen, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg (IFSH), co-editor of the 2009 Peace Report and Author of: 'The Gaza-War -- Latest Chapter in an Never-Ending Conflict'

John Gatt-Rutter, DG E V/Policy Unit Task Force Mediterranean/Middle East, Policy Unit, Council of the European Union

Gwenda Jeffreys-Jones, Desk Officer Middle East Peace Process, European Commission

The number of ESDP missions has increased and their scope of activity has widened in the past years. Capabilities have been at the centre of the debate on ESDP missions, but the focus has been overshadowed by military capabilities, monopolising the debate at the expense of civilian capabilities.

There is now a strong need for the EU to address professional skills in the Civilian Headline Goals and establish a clear vision of how the External Action Service will be set up once the Treaty of Lisbon is finally implemented.

Host: MEP Janusz Onyszkiewicz (ALDE)

Chair: Giji Gya, Executive Director, ISIS Europe

Speakers:

Lieutenant General Patrick de Rousiers, French military representative to the European Union Military Committee

Mika-Markus Leinonen, Directorate General E IX-Civilian Crisis

Jiri Pavlicek Head of CFSP/ESDP Unit (Czech Permanent Representation to the EU)

In June 2008, the EU officially launched the Security Sector Reform Mission in Guinea-Bissau with the objective to assist in the implementation of the country's National Security Strategy. The EU SSR Guinea-Bissau is a challenging mission not least due to the host country's violent past, failing infrastructure and weak civil society. Despite increased international involvement in the country, Guinea-Bissau continues to be plagued with numerous problems, most notably illegal drug-trafficking and illegal migration.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for 16 November 2008 it is a good time to explore the current situation and the future prospects of Guinea-Bissau.

Host: MEP Ana Maria Gomes (PSE)

Chair: Giji Gya, Executive Director, ISIS Europe

Speakers:

General Juan Esteban Verastegui, Head of Mission EU SSR Guinea-Bissau

Silvia Roque, Centre for Social Studies, Portugal

Olga Baus-Gibert, Manager of Programmes, European Commission

Amador Sanchez-Rico, Desk Officer for Guinea-Bissau, European Commission

In its attempt to stop a future Rwanda, the "Responsibility to Protect"(R2P) concept has raised a number of controversial issues. Those in support of the principle have seen it as a milestone in extending a normative basis for humanitarian intervention, while others claim that R2P serves as a license for powerful "Western" states to impose and intervene wherever they like.

Speaking on such issues 

Gareth Evans, President and CEO, International Crisis Group, (former Co-Chair ICISS)

Mark Burgess, Director, World Security Institute

Marta Martinelli, Pole Bernheim Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies, Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Visiting Professor, UNESCO Chair, University of Bujumbura, Burundi (author of the EP study on the Protection of Civilians in Peacekeeping) 

will seek to answer the following questions:

- What has happened to our understanding of sovereignty since the adoption of R2P?
- How important is the issue of political will in mobilising a response to potential R2P situations and the protection of civilians?

- How is ESDP addressing the issue of civilian and military capabilities in response to R2P?

- How have the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq affected the legitimacy of R2P as a concept?

- Should the international community invoke R2P in Darfur/Chad, Zimbabwe or Burma?

Host: Angelika Beer, MEP

Opening remarks: Angelika Beer, MEP

Chair: Giji Gya, ISIS Europe

Speakers:

PD Dr Andreas Heinemann-Gruder, Senior Researcher as the Bonn International Centre for Conversion 
Prof. Dr Harald Muller, Director of the Peace Research Institute, Frankfurt
Prof. Dr Gotz Neuneck, Leader of the interdisciplinary working group on disarmament, arms control and risk technologies, Hamburg Institute for Security and Peace 

Three speakers from leading research institutes in Germany present their major findings and policy proposals on how best the EU and NATO can both preserve international arms control regimes and develop new arms control and disarmament initiatives.

Host: Andre Brie, MEP

Opening remarks: Andre Brie, MEP

Chair: Dr Stephen Pulinger, ISIS Europe

Speakers:

Bernd W. Kubbig, Senior Research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt
Jerry Sommer, Research Associate at the Bonn International Center for Conversion

Discussants:

Stephen Pullinger, Executive Director, ISIS Europe

Two speakers from leading research institutes in Germany presented their particular perspectives on how best to prevent the development of an Iranian Bomb. They contest that sanctions have failed to change Teheran's policies, and now is the time to put forward an alternative approach.

 Hosted by Ana Gomes MEP
Opening: Margarida Ponte Ferreira, Portuguese Permanent Representation, Chair of the Development Cooperation Working Party of the EU
Chair: ISIS Europe
Speakers: International Crisis Group, International Alert and Saferworld
Responders: ECDPM, Council, Commission and EP

Hosted by Hannes Swoboda, MEP. 
Guest Speakers: 
Jerry Sommer,BICC
Leopold Maurer, Head of Unit, DG Enlargement, European Commission 
Peter Croll, Director, Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC)

Hosted by Ana Gomes MEP
Chair: ISIS Europe
Speakers:Colonel Stan Wulffaert, Chief Strategic Planning Branch, Civ/Mil Cell, EUMS.
Alexander McLachlan, Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management Unit, European Commission.
Dr Lesley McCulloch, Academic and researcher.

Hosted and Chaired by Charles Tannock, Member of the European Parliament. 
Guest Speakers: 
Wg Cdr David Trembaczowski-Ryder, Council Secretariat
Mr. Carl Hallergard, Council Secretariat
Andrei Dronov, Russian Mission to NATO 
Dr. Alexander Nikitin, Centre for Political and International Studies, Moscow

Hosted by Bart Staes, MEP
Guest Speakers: 
Kees van Rij, Policy Unit, Council of the European Union
Dov Lynch, European Union Institute of Security Studies

Hosted by Catriona Gourlay, Chair, ISIS Europe. 
Special Guest: Jean Pascal Zanders, Bioweapons Prevention Project