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 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". [2] 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. [3] 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. [4]
The ELN specialises on security issues. [5]
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. [6]
The ELN operates through a network of former European political, military, and diplomatic leaders and supports this network with in-house research and events. [7] The network itself contains members not just from the EU but also Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia, Albania, Norway, and Serbia. [8] 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, [9] near-misses between Russian and Western militaries, [10] and the expanding Russo-Chinese relationship [11]
A report published by the European Leadership Network in 2015, title Dangerous Brinkmanship: closer military encounters between Russia and the West in 2015 [12] generated considerable attention around the world. [10] [13] [14] [15] 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. [16] 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) [17]