European Leadership Network (ELN) is a pan-European think-tank focusing on European foreign, defence and security issues based in London, United Kingdom.[1] The ELN's Director is Sir Adam Thomson,[2] former UK Permanent Representative to NATO.
European Leadership Network (ELN) is a pan-European think-tank focusing on European foreign, defence and security issues based in London, United Kingdom.[1] The ELN's Director is Sir Adam Thomson,[2] former UK Permanent Representative to NATO.
The ELN was founded as part of a project by the Nuclear Security Project in an effort to "help create the political space for dialogue, education and action on the vision and steps toward a world without nuclear weapons".[3] At the end of 2013 the ELN broadened its focus and remit of work to address a much wider range of foreign and security policy challenges facing Europe.
The ELN is currently chaired by former UK Defence Secretary Des Browne and is directed by Sir Adam Thomson.[4] In March 2015, Lord Browne and former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, both won the prestigious Nunn-Lugar Award for Promoting Nuclear Security, in part for their work with the European Leadership Network.[5]
The ELN specialises on security issues.[6]
On 27 March 2015, the Carnegie Corporation of New York announced that it was funding the European Leadership Network for 24 months, as part of its philanthropic efforts.[7]
The ELN operates through a network of former European political, military, and diplomatic leaders and supports this network with in-house research and events.[8] The network itself contains members not just from the EU but also Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Albania, Norway, and Serbia.[9] Such a scope has as its basis a conception of a Greater Europe similar to that of the OSCE.
In 2014 the European Leadership Network has expanded to tackle broader European and global security issues, including the Ebola crisis,[10] near-misses between Russian and Western militaries,[11] and the expanding Russo-Chinese relationship[12]
A report published by the European Leadership Network in 2015, title Dangerous Brinkmanship: closer military encounters between Russia and the West in 2015[13] generated considerable attention around the world.[11][14][15][16] At the 2015 Munich Security Conference in February 2015, conference chairman Wolfgang Ischinger, also a member of the European Leadership Network, publicly questioned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the findings of the ELN report.[citation needed] In May 2015, 68 members of the European Leadership Members signed a global statement in support of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ahead of its Review Conference in New York.[17] The statement was also signed by senior figures from Latin America, the United States and Asia-Pacific.
The European Leadership Network administers the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (TLG)[18]