Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 07/2010

European Defense Trends: Budgets, Regulatory Frameworks, and the Industrial Base

Joachim Hofbauer, Roy Levy, Gregory Sanders, Matthew Zlatnik

May 2011

Center for Strategic and International Studies

Abstract

An in-depth understanding of the supply and demand sides of the European defense market and the regulatory framework that governs it is critical for evaluating broader European defense policies and capabilities. This annotated briefing assesses defense budgets in 2001–2008 for 37 European countries (the demand side), developments in the regulatory framework governing European defense trade, and the financial health of the European defense and security industrial base (the supply side). It then integrates the analysis from these three elements to generate a new way of looking at the European defense market. This briefing continues the CSIS research on European defense spending originally published in 2008. The full report on which this briefing is based will be published in summer 2010.