CIAO DATE: 11/03

The Future of the Transatlantic Defense Community: Final Report of the CSIS Commission on Transatlantic Security and Industrial Cooperation in the Twenty-first Century

Jean-Paul Béchat, Felix G. Rohatyn, John J. Hamre, Simon Serfaty

The Center for Strategic and International Studies

January 2003

 

About the Book

The governments of the United States and Europe should work together to preserve and nurture a transatlantic technology and industrial base capable of meeting twenty-first century security challenges, according to a CSIS panel composed of members of the business, policy, and political communities from both sides of the Atlantic. Their report, The Future of the Transatlantic Defense Community, concludes the work of the CSIS Commission on Transatlantic Security and Industrial Cooperation in the Twenty-first Century, a joint U.S.-European initiative cochaired by Jean-Paul Béchat, chairman and CEO of SNECMA, and Felix G. Rohatyn, former U.S. ambassador to France. The commission consisted of 22 senior business leaders and former policymakers from the United States and Europe. The report includes a five-part agenda for action, presenting the commission's consensus recommendations, and a background paper detailing the commission's work, conclusions, and recommendations. The commission's recommended action agenda includes the following key points:

• Better Value for Money but also More Money for Greater Value: "European governments should focus their efforts on developing advanced military technologies and making them more easily deployable through consolidation, more efficient practices, and as feasible, greater spending."

• Promoting a Level Playing Field: "The transatlantic gap is not at the level of basic technologies; rather, it is at the level of integrating these technologies into suitable defense applications. U.S. and European governments should foster an environment that allows for closer industrial cooperation on the development of advanced military systems across the Atlantic."

• Avoiding Fortresses, Realigning Policies: "Both the United States and Europe need to reform their export control systems so as to strengthen their ability to share technologies and to better address the new and evolving threats in the global security environment."

• Merging Industry, Diverging Policy? "U.S. and EU authorities need to work more closely together on technical issues affecting cooperative arrangements between companies in Europe and the United States. Greater transparency and mutual understanding of national and EU perspectives on merger regulations and reviews, foreign investment, and industrial security and disclosure regulation would be important early topics for discussion."

• From Industry Consensus to Policy Implementation: "Defense companies on both sides of the Atlantic should press their governments for a mandate to initiate a senior-level, industry-driven process to identify and offer governments transatlantic industry consensus on necessary changes in regulations and processes that govern technology transfers and other kinds of cooperative corporate ventures."

"While the United States and its allies face multiple security challenges at this hour, the state of relations within the alliance and the health of the defense industry is no less serious," said John Hamre, project chair and former U.S. deputy secretary of defense. "Relations are badly strained. While the defense industries on either side of the Atlantic inherently pursue their own market goals, we are now at a point where cooperation must trump these competitive forces to help hold the alliance together. The U.S. and European defense industries are stifled by misguided and antiquated export controls and technology regulations. This report represents an important start, a consensus among competitors and policy leaders on steps we must take in the years ahead."

 

Table of Contents

Front Matter and Contents (PDF format, 5 pages, 115.2 KB)

About the Commission (PDF format, 2 pages, 25.8 KB)

Declaration of Common Objectives (PDF format, 2 pages, 28.6 KB)

An Agenda for Action (PDF format, 4 pages, 49.2 KB)

The Future of the Transatlantic Defense Community

1. Introduction (PDF format, 4 pages, 35.4 KB)

2. Transatlantic Security and Defense Cooperation in a Changing World (PDF format, 14 pages, 128.7 KB)

3. Transatlantic Defense Cooperation: Benefits, Risks, and Barriers (PDF format, 18 pages, 153.1 KB)

4. Lessons Learned: Defense Cooperation in Practice (PDF format, 12 pages, 117.7 KB)

5. Shaping a Transatlantic Defense Community (PDF format, 10 pages, 95.1 KB)

Appendixes

• Appendix A: NATO Defense Expenditures (PDF format, 1 page, 26.6 KB)

• Appendix B: Transatlantic Comparisons on Defense Spending (PDF format, 1 page, 33.4 KB)

• Appendix C: Total R&D and Defense R&D in Percent of GDP (PDF format, 1 page, 197.7 KB)

• Appendix D: Forms of Cooperation (PDF format, 2 pages, 33.8 KB)

• Appendix E: Case Studies in Defense Industrial Cooperation (PDF format, 12 pages, 98.9 KB)

On the Commissioners (PDF format, 1 page, 22.9 KB)