European Defence and the Changing Politics of the European Union: Hanging Together or Hanging Separately?

Abstract

This article assesses the implications of the common European security and defence policy (CESDP) for shifts in both the politics and the policy‐making procedures of the European Union. It analyses the emerging dynamics of the new institutional structures of CESDP launched in 2000 (COPS, EUMC, EUMS, HR‐CFSP) and in particular the tensions between national capitals and the process of ‘Brusselization’ in the definition and formulation of European foreign and security policy. It argues that, in the field of crisis management, the requirements of rapid decision‐making and efficient implementation will increasingly favour Brussels as the locus of policy formulation. This process will be enhanced by the growing role in CESDP of military officials and of defence ministries, which will take primary responsibility for the shape and remit of the nascent European Rapid Reaction Force (ERRF). The article also assesses the problems facing EU governments in selling CESDP to their publics. This involves the construction of a discourse which, both cognitively and normatively, can persuade electorates coming from very different security cultures of the necessity and appropriateness of the project. It also requires governments, sooner or later, to make the case for increased defence spending.