Last week saw the Lancaster launch of The Handbook of European Defence Policies and Armed Forces, edited by Lancaster's Dr Marco Wyss and Dr Hugo Meijer of Sciences Po.

The launch saw guests from across the region gather with staff, undergraduates and postgraduates from across the faculty to celebrate the Handbook's publication, and to hear an outline of its key arguments given by its editors, with introductory remarks by Professor Michael Hughes (Lancaster).

The Handbook assembles fifty-one chapters from experts across the globe to assess how Europe's armed forces have been transformed in the wake of the Cold War. In analysing European defence at a national level, it demonstrates the strategic cacophony prevalent across the continent and the ultimate failure of supra-national approaches to defence.

The Lancaster launch of the Handbook follows launches in Oslo and Paris, with launches in Leiden, Berlin, Florence and Boston to come.