ABSTRACT
The advanced industrial states of North America and Europe have rarely experienced as long a period of established peace within their region as they presently enjoy. Yet within the European Union, and between the United States and some of the leading founder members of the EU, there has been a profound, and often bitter, debate about the quality of security enjoyed by the West and the appropriate strategies required to sustain that condition (see Applebaum 2003; Broughton 2003; Daalder and Kagan 2004). Arguably, the security debate reached its apex — in terms of bitterness — in early 2003 after the United States-led invasion of Iraq. The Iraq war began almost exactly halfway between the unveiling (September 2002) of the US National Security Strategy (NSS), and the European Council's endorsement (December 2003) of the European Security Strategy (ESS). Both have been promulgated as serious, coherent responses to the security challenges of the current era. Investigation of how and in what circumstances the United States and the European Union intend to use force, or avoid the use of force, in addressing new security challenges provides an indication of their global strategic and political compatibility now and over the short to medium term. This chapter offers such an assessment.
