Strategic Culture In The European Union The Significance Of The European Security Strategy Of 2003

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: 8,2, Leiden University, language: English, abstract: The essay deals with the question whether the EU has established a strategic culture regarding its foreign and security policy. It begins with a discussion of the concept of strategic culture, to then dive into the sources of strategic culture and the extent to which the member states of the EU have similarities within those sources, namely geography and history, and political structure and institutions. Afterwards, the European Security Strategy of 2003 is considered as a potential manifestation of EU strategic culture, followed by developments after 2008. The essay concludes that the EU is growing closer to having a common strategic culture, but that it has not happened yet. Due to significant changes with regard to the security situation after the end of the Cold War, caused by conflicts in former Yugoslavia, the attacks on September 11, 2001, and the differences regarding the Iraq war for instance, the necessity for a coordinated European foreign and security policy became evident. Therefore, on December 12, 2003, the European Council agreed to the European Security Strategy (ESS), whose development was seen as an important step in defining common interests and goals of the EU regarding foreign and security policy.

European countries work together in crisis management, conflict prevention and many other aspects of security and defence policy. Closer cooperation in this policy arena seems to be the only viable way forward to address contemporary security challenges. Yet, despite the repeated interaction, fundamental assumptions about security and defence remain remarkably distinct across European nations. This book offers a comparative analysis of the security and defence policies of all 27 EU member states and Turkey, drawing on the concept of ‘strategic culture’, in order to examine the chances and obstacles for closer security and defence cooperation across the continent. Along the lines of a consistent analytical framework, international experts provide case studies of the current security and defence policies in Europe as well as their historical and cultural roots. ​

With the Lisbon Treaty in place and the European Union increasingly involved in international crisis management and stabilization operations in places near and far, this volume revisits the trajectory of a European strategic culture. Specifically, it studies the usefulness of its application in a variety of circumstances, including the EU’s operations in Africa and the Balkans as well as joint operations with NATO and the United Nations. The contributors find that strategic culture is a useful tool to explain and understand the EU's civilian and military operations, not in the sense of a ‘cause’, but as a European normative framework of preferences and constraints. Accordingly, classical notions of strategic culture in the field of international security must be adapted to highlight the specific character of Europe's strategic culture, especially by taking the interaction with the United Nations and NATO into account. Though at variance over the extent to which security and defence missions have demonstrated or promoted a shared strategic culture in Europe, the authors reveal a growing sense that a cohesive strategic culture is critical in the EU’s ambition of being a global actor. Should Europe fail to nurture a shared strategic culture, its actions will be based much more on flexibility than on cohesion. This book was published as a special issue of Contemporary Security Policy.

This book analyzes the extent to which national strategic cultures of EU member states are compatible both with one another and the emerging multinational consensus expressed in the EU's European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The juxtaposition of ESDP and national strategic culture generates a map of adaptation pressures faced by EU member governments. Case studies of Austria, France, Germany, and the UK are matched with exploratory analysis of Denmark, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden. National strategic cultures define the realm of what is possible regarding national adaptation to international change in defense policy. The EU level serves as an intermediary level between the domestic and the international arenas.

This book provides a provocative analysis of relations between Europe and America during the tempestuous years 1998-2004. Analysing EU foreign policy, it concludes that the lessons learnt in interacting with America have been crucial in shaping the emerging EU strategic culture.The book challenges established orthodoxy regarding the sui generis nat

The Quest for a European Strategic Culture investigates whether strategic norms and beliefs held in different countries have become more similar since 1989 and explores the implications for the viability of a common European Security and Defence Policy. The empirical evidence emerging from various sources shows some significant changes.

In December 2003 the EU adopted the European Security Strategy, the first ever common strategic vision of the Member States. This volume examines how the Strategy can form the basis of a comprehensive approach that integrates all dimensions of EU external action, from aid and trade to defence, under the same agenda of 'effective multilateralism' or global governance. This agenda can be translated into the core public goods to which every individual on earth is entitled; promoting access to these global public goods can be the essence of a distinctive European approach emphasizing long-term stabilization and conflict prevention. On that basis, the Strategy can be a global agenda for positive power - global because of its worldwide scope and comprehensive nature - for an EU with effective power to achieve positive objectives. The book will appeal to audiences interested in the EU as an international actor, foreign policy, security and defence, development and trade. It is also suitable for policy makers in the EU institutions and the Member States.