Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to provide a fresh perspective upon the vast literature on the (slow) evolution of the EU Common Defence and Security Policy, namely its capabilities and institutions, since the turn of the century. My approach will focus on the agent (national) level by looking at the European Defence through the juxtaposition and comparison of French and German national interests/strategies, and then analysing the effects caused by those two member-states to the EU (structure) level of the CSDP. By focusing on the “national interests” and “national strategies” of the two main EU powers (France and Germany), the goal is to balance most of the recent literature on European defence which my paper argues has been too dominated by neofunctionalist theories that focus on the EU system as a whole and thus has moved away from more agent-level analyses that focus on the Member-States. The key hypothesis to be validated or disproved concerns the primacy that French and German interests have when it comes to the key decisions regarding EU Defence and Security policies, put to test across (1) defining security policies, (2) investing in security capabilities and (3) creating security institutions in the EU context. I argue that the CSDP has not yet evolved towards a ‘true’ European army, and that the main reason is the continued lack of convergence in French and German national interests and strategies. The paper follows an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of International Relations, Security Studies and EU/European Studies, using a predominantly documentary method drawing on academic literature, public speeches by elected officials, and official strategic documents.
Panel: European Defense and Security
Cite this presentation
@inproceedings{eiss-2021-slowly-moving-towards-a-european-defense-the-feasible-compromise-between-france,
author = {Alberto Cunha},
title = {Slowly Moving Towards a European Defense? The Feasible Compromise between France and Germany in the post-Brexit Context},
booktitle = {European Security Studies Conference 2021},
year = {2021},
url = {https://eiss-europa.com/papers/2021-slowly-moving-towards-a-european-defense-the-feasible-compromise-between-france.html}
}