By Dr Kamil Zwolski, Politics & International Relations

Last week was filled with interesting research events. On Monday, I was invited to the Chatham Hose in London to participate in a workshop ‘Security-Development Nexus, Locating Praxis in EU External Relations’. It was a good opportunity for us, academics, to provide feedback to EU officials on the role of the EU in managing the security-development nexus in its external relations. Equally, it was very interesting to find out what some the recent developments and challenges in the EU’s external policy are.

On Wednesday, I flew to Catania, Sicily, to attend a workshop on ‘The EU Emergency Policies’, organised by Jean Monnet Chair Ad Personam Fulvio Attinà. The workshop brought together a group of scholars from around Europe researching the EU’s capacity (or incapacity) to respond to emergency crises. In my contribution, I reflected on the EU’s policy towards CBRN-related threats. This topic, as well as the topic of the first workshop, is discussed in my book The EU as a Global Security Actor.