ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with various existing readings of European defence industrial cooperation. Structuralist approaches augur that greater market liberalisation, international competition and an international division of labour in the defence sector are factors that have also caused greater European Union (EU)-level defence industrial cooperation. Thus, the consolidation of civilian and defence markets through the EU single market is a way to drive forward EU defence industrial cooperation. Despite technological and political factors, however, the bulk of structural explanations for closer European defence industrial cooperation rely on economic theory. Institutionalist theories are also applicable to debates about European defence industrial cooperation. Europeanisation approaches tend to stress the importance of the European level of policymaking when this ‘only explains one part of the story’ because ‘going European does not imply decreasing national interests in armament matters’. A number of scholars have looked at how the structure of international politics may affect European defence cooperation.
