Several days ago, my co-blogger, Finn Maigaard, and I were chatting via skype with Ms. Giji Gya of ISIS Europe and her team on their latest project: CSDP Maps. This excellent think-tank, well known for its European Security Review series, has been working for several years in developing an extremely useful tool for researchers, practitioners, and students of the CSDP and the EU as an international actor. ISIS Europe has succeeded in creating a gateway to the extensive and complex world of the CSDP. As often underlined by Jolyon Howorth in his numerous publications on the ESDP/CSDP, in its 13 years of existence the CSDP has been at the heart of an extensive literature.
The CSDP Map is composed of four windows: all the CSDP missions; countries hosting an
CSDP mission; the EU Structures of the CSDP; and the different thematic of the CSDP. These four windows offer one of the best starting points for any simple and/or complex research on the question of CSDP. My favorite is the thematic section offering a large table composed of all the issues associated with the CSDP. Each theme is directly linked to a series of papers written by experts from top European think tanks.
As of today, we – European citizens, students, experts, faculty, diplomats – cannot complain about the complexity of the EU and EEAS’ websites, as ISIS Europe successfully undertook this dantesque task by making it easy, accurate, and comprehensible.
