ABSTRACT

This edited collection is a timely and in-depth analysis of the EU’s efforts to bring coherency and strategy to its security policy actions.

Despite a special European Council summit in December 2013 on defence, it is generally acknowledged that fifteen years since its inception the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has yet to acquire a clear sense of purpose. This book investigates those areas where the EU has established actorness in the security and defence field and asks whether they might constitute the elements of an emergent more coherent EU strategy on security. Taking a critical view, the contributors map the EU’s strategic vision(s) across particular key regions where the EU has been active as a security actor, the strategic challenges that it has pinpointed alongside the opportunities and barriers posed by a multiplicity of actors, interests and priorities identified by both member states and EU actors. By doing this we demonstrate where gaps in strategic thinking lie, where the EU has been unable to achieve its aims, and offer recommendations concerning the EU’s future strategic direction.

This book will be of much interest to students of European security, EU policy, strategic studies and IR in general.

part I|68 pages

Regional challenges

chapter 2|16 pages

CSDP strategy in the Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood

In search for a strategy?

chapter 4|17 pages

The EU's comprehensive approach to security in the MENA region

What Lessons for CSDP from Libya?

chapter 5|17 pages

The CSDP and Asia

part II|66 pages

Strategic challenges

chapter 8|16 pages

Maritime security and the CSDP

Interests, operational experience, and strategies

part III|66 pages

Strategic opportunities and barriers

chapter 10|16 pages

EU–NATO relations

Top-down strategic paralysis, bottom-up cooperation

chapter 11|17 pages

The national priorities of Germany, France and the UK

Enabling or constraining a joined-up EU strategy?

chapter 13|15 pages

Uncovering EU strategy in its security policy

An (in)coherent actor?