Would Brexit spell the end of European defence?

Britain and France are nuclear powers, partners in NATO and the EU, permanent members of the UN Security Council, and are Europe’s leading security actors. Together they represent the EU’s best (only?) hope of building a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and, finally, sharing with the US the burden of collective Western defence in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world. Britain and France have taken major steps to pool their defence capabilities. What do they need to do to be more effective global security actors? A panel of defence and foreign policy experts will debate the options.

Claire Chick is Head of Defence at the Franco-British Council (@francobritish). She has a PhD in Defence from the Panthéon-Sorbonne University and has lectured in European Politics for twelve years. Her academic research has focused on the building of a European dimension in security and she has focused on the Franco-British relationship since 1954.

Karen Smith is Professor of International Relations and Director of the European Foreign Policy Unit at LSE. She received the 2007 Anna Lindh Award for outstanding research on European foreign and security policy.

Maurice Fraser is Head of the European Institute at LSE.

The LSE European Institute (@LSEEI) was established in 1991 as a dedicated centre for the interdisciplinary study of processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe. In the most recent national Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014) the Institute was ranked first for research in its sector. The LSE European Institute has been a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence since 2009.