Unit:
Κατεύθυνση Διεθνείς και Ευρωπαϊκές ΣπουδέςLibrary of the Faculties of Political Science and Public Administration, Communication and Mass Media Studies, Turkish and Modern Asian Studies, Sociology
Author:
Leivadaras Eleftherios
Supervisors info:
Φιλίππα Χατζησταύρου, Διδάκτωρ Πολιτικής Επιστήμης, Tμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών
Original Title:
Prospects and Challenges of the European Defence & Security Cooperation
Translated title:
Prospects and Challenges of the European Defence & Security Cooperation
Summary:
The enduring and ambitious aspiration of a common European Army has instilled awe to academics, political theorists and visionaries since before the establishment of the European Communities. Its immoderate fundament has been part of a paramount political process towards a fully integrated European State that would secure an inviolable peace between national actors and beyond. However its perennial inadequacies have always been the outcome of unbending national interests and structural characteristics of the international order. The changing nature of integration, political conservatism and the eroding international system are providing the grounds for a systematization of flexible solutions in European cooperation and a new sectoral domain for security and defence, the Industrial and Technological base. The mandate of Saint Malo for autonomous action provided a path that is currently leading the EU to a Structured Cooperation and a Defence, Technology and Industrial Strategy that couldn’t be more alienating towards the prospect of a coherent cooperation that will direct a collective effort in implementing a 21st century security and defence union. Without the political consensus for strategic implementation and the shared threat perceptions regarding human security and its externalization through foreign policy, the new security environment that is emerging won’t be pre-empted by the rather ambitious and dubious means of the current rationale.
The end of the bipolar world and the emergence of a multipolar environment have advanced the prospect of an integrated European defence as a response to conventional and asymmetric threats of the 21st century. The launch of the permanent structured cooperation in 2017 stipulated in the Treaty of Lisbon signifies a pivotal change of pace in Europe’s integration as it sets forth a process that reaches the boundaries set by national sovereignty. The political, financial and institutional capacity that PESCO requires have raised arguments concerning it’s pragmatism and whether it’s only a means to an end, in order to achieve a higher level of integration. The absence of a political bedrock and the formation of new intergovernmental barriers towards a strategic autonomy status, are leading to a fragmented and disparate process that is directed towards a military and defence industry coil. Without the necessary political convergence PESCO will remain deficient and drifting between selective few and decentralized interests. Prioritization of goals, strategic communication and a societal and human security perception can direct a collective effort in implementing a 21st century defence union.
Main subject category:
Social, Political and Economic sciences
Keywords:
Militarization, Intergovermentalism, Sectoral integration, EDTIB, threat perception, post-modern security, national interests, capabilities, regulation, flexibility, defence union
