ABSTRACT
There has been a progressive evolution in thinking about the European Union (EU) as an international actor. The EU security agenda could be characterised as the formulation of strategy as response, reinforcing the view of the EU as a reactive power without a clear or consistent strategic purpose. Essentially, within the evolution of a EU security strategy, which is most relevant to the emergence of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the EU has collectively developed over time a clear set of beliefs as to how and when to employ military force. The genesis of the EU's turn to strategy is born out of a constant antithesis between the EU's normative aspirations and the 'daily' exigencies of the international system. Consequently, and partly as the result of heavy criticism, the EU has begun to formulate a more precise and strategic approach to its security agenda more closely linking, or reconciling, the EU's normative aspirations to rational expectations.
