By Marie Brethous and Laura Skana This blog post was written for the course "Current Issues in Global and EU Affairs", which took place from February 12-April 30, 2018. Meet PESCO, the new kid on the block. NATO and PESCO states. Blue countries are only in PESCO, red are only in NATO, purple countries are members of both PESCO and NATO Image credit: Wikimedia Commons user JLogan ‘ More Security for the EU and its citizens ’ is what the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) will bring to the table. The initiative signed by 25 EU member states, aims to enhance their cooperation in the area of security and defence, by allowing them to jointly develop capabilities and therefore enhance EU’s role as an international security actor. The mandate for PESCO is defined in the Treaty of the EU , art 42(6), art 46 and Protocol 10. It is a specific CSDP mechanism that allows member states to voluntarily commit regarding defence and security. On 11 December 2017 the 17 collab...