ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what the role of the newly awakened "Sleeping Beauty of European defence" might be in the new European security order, and the extent to which that role has been implemented. It describes how sequential decisions, taken by the Western European Union (WEU), relate to the several initial decisions, and how the sequential decisions have been implemented. The chapter focuses on a distinction between implementation of decisions concerning institutional "hardware" or decisions concerning institutional "software". It discusses implementation of policies below the WEU multilateral umbrella such as force restructuring and the creation of multinational units answerable to the WEU. The chapter deals with implementation in the field of ideational dynamics. The WEU's role in Europe's new security order has been influenced by decisions as well as non-decisions. As both decisions and non-decisions contribute to define the WEU's role in Europe's new security order, it is a mixed record which gives an idea of the WEU's role.
