ABSTRACT
The security preoccupations of the European Union (EU) member states, particularly the effective interchangeability of security and defence, have vastly complicated European efforts to create a common grand security strategy. This chapter explains why the EU has emerged as a legitimate and authoritative security actor. It then defines the essential characteristics of the EU system of security governance that serve as both the mechanism for securing Europe in a manner consistent with European principles and norms as well as the major security referent for the EU and its member states. The EU, as a post-Westphalian construct conjoined to the greatly broadened and partially demilitarised security agenda that has emerged in the past three decades. The EU system of security governance has produced well-defined norms and principles that are substantive and intrinsic to the calculation of the nominally national interests of EU member states.
