The development of a Brussels-based EU strategic culture : a case study of the European Security and Defence Policy
The study of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) has been dominated
by various mainstream theories drawn from International Relations and European
Studies. These have largely neglected the role of ideas, beliefs, values and practices
regarding the use of police and military instruments, in other words, the strategic
culture which shapes the security and defence policies of the European Union (EU).
This strategic culture of the EU has become manifest in the way ESDP officials think
about the deployment of military and police resources as well as in the way they plan
ESDP missions.
After introducing the concept in general terms, the thesis claims that the notion of
strategic culture can be applied to the EU. Various innovative models of
categorisationa re provided throughout the thesis in order to describe the state of
development of EU strategic culture. An analysis of the development of the strategic
culture of the EU is provided since the end of the Cold War up to the year 2007.
Important developments such as the institutionalisation of ESDP and the
establishment of influential policy networks are considered in detail. The study also
takes into account the discourse of ESDP and questions the ideas that stem from it
through interviews and questionnaires with ESDP officials. A cases tudy of the police
and military missions of the EU in Bosnia Herzegovina is included in order to show
how ideas regarding the use of force impact on the implementation of EU missions. In
conclusion, the thesis claims that the EU has its own strategic culture which is
characterised by a number of behavioural/structural elements as well as by certain ideas, values, beliefs and practices.
European Security, Strategic Culture, and the Use of Force
This article examines post-cold war European attitudes to the use of force, focusing on the UK, France, Germany and Poland. It argues that European strategic culture reflects the security environment of the second half of the Twentieth century, and increasingly acts as an impediment to developing new European security strategies relevant to the early twenty-first century. The author argues that new thinking about security and strategy is required in Europe, and suggests six principles that should inform a revised European security strategy appropriate to the post-9/11 world.
Europe's Experimental Union: Rethinking Integration
Chapter 1 Unsettled. Chapter 2 European States and Nations. Chapter 3 World Politics. Chapter 4 International Political Economy. Chapter 5 Governance. Chapter 6 Market. Chapter 7 Money. Chapter 8 International Role. Chapter 8 A New Model of Internationalisation