ABSTRACT
The chapter is structured as follows: first, it defines the dependent variable. Indeed, the term defence-industrial cooperation is often used in many vague and variegated meanings. Second, it critically assesses the literature on European defence-industrial cooperation, highlighting why these works have not been able to fully answer my research questions. Third, the chapter defines the two independent variables – the public or private governance of defence firms and market size and their possible combination in a typology of European countries’ preferences towards defence-industrial cooperation and in a set of theoretically embedded research hypotheses. Chapter 2 is also instrumental in identifying two alternative hypotheses, based respectively on a Realist and Liberal approach, which I test, along with my argument, in the empirical analysis.
