Towards A European Defence Market

Document from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1, Anglia Ruskin University, language: English, abstract: This work examines the strategic options for companies in the European defence sector, taking into account the drastic changes the industry will be faced with in the coming years. It explores the players in the market, assesses their market position in their respective national industry and forecasts their potential position in a common European defence market. It explores duplication and absence of armaments and technological skills as well as the reasons for them. The paper suggests strategies to overcome the aforementioned market distortions and provides options for companies to deal with the situation favourably. Moreover, it explores the U.S. defence industry, which was confronted with severe market changes after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The research relied mainly on data issued by European Union institutions, strategic research institutions, company annual reports, international organizations such as NATO, and financial newspapers in order to cover recent events. Data was analyzed using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and other mainly comparative ratios in order to collate markets, companies, and structures. The work provides an empirical analysis of market conditions that shows that European national defence markets are highly concentrated, whereas the U.S. market is unconcentrated. It illustrates reasons for this condition and presents ways to change the concentration in the market. The research contributes towards the rather low number of studies that have been conducted in the field of European armaments. It provides a foundation for potential supplementary studies that could be concerned with an assessment of the effectiveness of legal and other initiatives used to streamline the European defence industry. Keywords - Armaments, Market structure, Defence sector, European Union

This book investigates the ongoing liberalization of the European defence market and explores how companies can respond to these changes by adjusting their innovation and internationalization strategies. Traditionally, the EU defence sector has been fragmented into several weakly integrated and highly protected domestic markets which often leads to the duplication of innovative efforts, rising production costs and an overall lack of competitiveness. Using a variety of methods including case studies, econometric analyses and agent-based modelling, the authors reveal that liberalization will provide new and relevant opportunities for European defence companies. However, any potential benefits will only be realized if private firms perceive that a full and well-coordinated implementation process is in place.

This book provides an empirical understanding of how EU-level defence industrial cooperation functions in practice. Using the Liberal Intergovernmental theoretical model, the book argues that while national economic preferences are an essential factor of government interests they only explain part of the dynamic that leads to the development of defence industrial policy at EU level. Moving beyond a simple adumbration of economic preferences, it shows how the EU’s institutional framework and corpus of law are used by governments to reaffirm their position as the ultimate arbiter and promoter of national economic preferences in the defence industrial sector. To this end, the work asks why and how EU member state governments, European defence firms, and EU institutions developed EU-level defence industrial policy between 2003 and 2009. The book also analyses significant policy developments, including the establishment of a European Defence Agency and two EU Directives on equipment transfers and defence procurement. This book will be of much interest to students of EU policy, defence studies, security studies and International Relations in general.

This book comparatively examines the preferences of four key arms-producing states towards European joint armaments programmes. The European defence market is characterised by a mixture of inter-state competition and European cooperation, and this work assesses why countries sometimes decide to cooperate with their partners, while in other instances they refrain from doing so. In order to shed light on this empirical puzzle, the book focuses on state-defence industry relations in the four major European arms producers: France, Germany, Italy and the UK. The main argument is that the public or private governance of industrial suppliers and market size are the two decisive variables that explain the simultaneous presence of cooperation and competition in European defence procurement. Specifically, it argues that in public governance ecosystems, arms industries are able to "capture" the state's decision-making processes to their own advantage. In private governance ecosystems, the state is relatively autonomous from defence industry's influence and able to pursue larger macro-economic and military benefits. Moreover, the strategy pursued by governments and defence firms is decisively shaped by market size because of its importance in determining the relative costs and benefits of collaborative arrangements. This book will be of much interest to students of EU policy, defence studies, European politics and International Relations.

A critical evaluation of the EU Defence and Security Procurement Directive 2009/81/EC in its legal, economic, military, and political context.

A comparative analysis of the role of EU and US defence procurement regulation as a barrier to transatlantic defence trade.

"The EU made a strong commitment to developing an effective EU led crisis management capacity. By 2003 the EU must be in a position to deploy within 60 days up to 50,000-60,000 troops capable of a full range of so-called Petersberg tasks including: humanitarian and rescue missions, peacekeeping, combat force tasks in crisis management and peacemaking missions." "According to the EU however the initiative should not be seen as a duplication of NATO. Neither should the establishment of a European Force be confused with the concept of a European army. Whether a European army, or a common defence for Europe is more capable of handling the future needs and challenges of the EU is not the subject of this book. Essentially it is about whether a military crisis management system is practical and realistic and how the planned initiatives within the agreed limits are to be transformed into operative policy."--BOOK JACKET.