The I2DS2 Dictionary project is an initiative of I2DS2 designed to give meaning to the key concepts used in the fields of security, defence and intelligence, as well as the current phrases and terms that can be found in documents, speeches and narratives specific to these fields. The definitions are proposed by members of the I2DS2 community, go through a process of cognitive refinement and are advanced in the public space, out of the desire to make a contribution to the development of the common language of these areas and, implicitly, to strengthen the security culture.
The European Union's Strategic Autonomy is the Union's ability to act uniformly and independently within the international system for the defence and promotion of its own interests, together with partners or individually.
The concept of strategic autonomy incubates four dimensions: political, technological, operational and institutional.
The political dimension of strategic autonomy refers to the European Union's ability to make decisions in the field of security and defence, without being influenced or hindered in any way by a third party, at any stage of the decision-making process.
The institutional dimension of strategic autonomy is found in the European organizational architecture in the fields of diplomacy and defence, designed to implement the decisions of the Council, the Commission and the Parliament in the field of foreign and security policy.
The technological dimension of strategic autonomy represents the Union's capacity to innovate in the field of military technology, technology and equipment.
The operational dimension of strategic autonomy refers to the Union's ability to conduct military operations autonomously, with a view to promoting or defending European interests.
(Niculae Iancu, September 15, 2019)
The European Union's Strategic Autonomy is the Union's ability to act uniformly and independently within the international system to defend and promote its own interests, together with partners or individually.
The concept of strategic autonomy incubates four dimensions: political, technological, operational and institutional.
The political dimension of strategic autonomy refers to the European Union's ability to make decisions in security and defence without being influenced or hindered in any way by a third party at any stage of the decision-making process.
The institutional dimension of strategic autonomy is found in the European organizational architecture in the fields of diplomacy and defence, designed to implement the Council's decisions, the Commission and the Parliament in the field of foreign and security policy.
The technological dimension of strategic autonomy represents the Union's capacity to innovate in military technology, technology and equipment.
The operational dimension of strategic autonomy refers to the Union's ability to conduct military operations autonomously, to promote or defend European interests.
(Niculae Iancu, September 15, 2019)
Military Capability refers to (1) the technical and technological capability of defence correlated with existing resources, (2) combat readiness understood as the ability to act and (3) the structure of the force or the organization and conception of the use of defence resources.
Without the notion still being included in the explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language, the capability is used in the common language of security and defence, often in synonymy with the term capacity, which leads to an unacceptable simplification of the meaning of the basic term.
The US Department of Defense dictionary considers capability to be "the ability to perform a task or perform a course of action under specified conditions at a given level of performance."
The operational definition of capability in NATO refers to "the potential expressed in quantitative and qualitative terms", while for NATO planners, capability represents the ability to create an effect by employing an integrated set of aspects of doctrine, organization, training, equipment, management, personnel, infrastructure and interoperability ”.
The Australian military defines capability as "the power to achieve an expected operational effect in a designated environment at a given time, and to sustain that effect for a set period of time".
The notion of military capability is essential in carrying out defence planning. The purpose of defence planning is not to build force structures but to increase or ensure the lethality of the armed forces at a level sufficient to meet the goals of discouraging and defeating the opponent. And lethality is an expression of power, power is a measure of force, while force flows directly from capability.
(Niculae Iancu, May 10, 2020)