Were there an ‘EU Acronym of the Year’ contest, PESCO would be well-positioned to grab the prize. The Permanent Structured Cooperation established last December has become a familiar term beyond the military community, standing for a new determination to enhance European defence and reinvigorate EU integration as a whole. In this issue of European Defence Matters, we look at PESCO from various angles through inspiring contributions from key actors from the academic, military political and operational domains.