Interview with Álvaro de Vasconcelos, co-founder and Director of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (IEEI) in Lisbon from 1981 to 2007, special adviser to Portuguese Defence Minister Fernando Nogueira from 1993 to 1995, special adviser to Portuguese Minister for Internal Administration António Figueiredo Lopes from 2002 to 2004 and Director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) from 2007 to 2012, carried out by the Centre Virtuel de la Connaissance sur l’Europe (CVCE) on 17 December 2013 at the home of Álvaro de Vasconcelos in Paris. The interview was conducted by Verónica Martins, a Researcher at the CVCE, and particularly focuses on the following subjects: Portugal in the European Union (EU) and Western European Union (WEU), the workings of WEU, the gradual transfer of WEU’s powers to the EU and its contribution to European defence, WEU’s contribution to EU foreign policy, EU foreign policy in the Euro-Mediterranean region and Latin America, and the importance of France and the UK in the EU’s European security and defence policy.