Abstract
Governments have contested European integration, at large, and national policy domains, in particular, ever since the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. The policy domain of European security and defense is no exception in this regard. When the Netherlands and Germany were against a France-led European security and defense policy in the 1960s, the Fouchet Plans failed. But when Denmark objected to the European Security and Defense Policy, this policy did not fail but Denmark was granted an opt-out. The institutional depth, one could argue, had changed over time. In the context of institutional depth, the UK was always ambivalent towards a European security and defense policy. It joined it at first, then blocked much of its institutional development and now that Brexit is on the table, it wants to be as closely related to it as possible. What explains these variable interpretations of European security and how does it impact the institution? In this paper, I will look at British political parties, their understanding of European security and the institutional depth based on which their decision to participate or not to participated rests.
Panel: The Domestic Politics of Security and Defense
Cite this presentation
@inproceedings{eiss-2019-parties-exit-and-european-security-and-defense,
author = {Stephanie Hofmann},
title = {Parties, Exit and European Security and Defense},
booktitle = {European Security Studies Conference 2019},
year = {2019},
url = {https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2019-parties-exit-and-european-security-and-defense.html}
}