ABSTRACT
The EU is often described as an economic giant but a political dwarf.386 Its economic weight in the international arena has not been matched by an equal gravitas in international politics. This dichotomy can be explained by historical reasons. From its inception the Community was a “civilian power”,387 that is, an organisation implicitly rejecting power politics and concentrating on the economic aspects of European integration.388 In reality, it lacked military capacity to conduct a defence policy. This aspect of European affairs was developed mainly within the framework of NATO. The collapse of Communism, the reunifi cation of Germany and the American policy of burden-shedding in military matters have changed perspectives on Europe’s future foreign and defence policy. However, the realistic objective of the CFSP for the EU was and remains more to agree on a common position in international policy (that is, to speak with one voice) than to achieve a unifi ed foreign policy conducted by supranational bodies, with the EU raised to the status of a superpower. This is because Member States are not currently willing, and may never be willing, to give up their exclusive power to conduct national and foreign policies as they wish. In particular, Member States which have a substantive military capability do not wish to lose the power and infl uence which that capability affords them in the international arena.
