1st Edition

The EU and the European Security Strategy Forging a Global Europe

Edited By Sven Biscop, Jan Joel Andersson Copyright 2008
    216 Pages
    by Routledge

    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    The European Security Strategy (ESS) has become an important reference framework for the EU since its inception in 2003. Without strategy an actor can only really be a ‘reactor’ to events and developments. In the ESS the EU now has a strategy, with which it has the potential of shifting boundaries and shaping the World.

    This volume explores this statement and examines the underlying concepts and implementation of the ESS as a judging tool of all the European Union’s external actions. Contributors, closely involved in the early debate leading up to the ESS, assess questions such as how the strategy has shaped EU policy, how it relates to existing policies but also how it has added value to these policies and whether the strategy’s objectives are sufficient to safeguard EU interests or whether they should be reviewed and added too.

    The outline of the strategy itself is followed; addressing its historical and conceptual context, the threat assessment, the multilateral and regional policies of the EU, its military capabilities and its strategic partnerships. This book offers a comprehensive vision of how the EU can achieve the ambitious objectives of the European Security Strategy and become an effective global actor as the strategy helps to forge a global Europe.

    The EU and the European Security Strategy will be of great interest to students and researchers of European politics and security studies.

    Introduction, Sven Biscop and Jan Joel Andersson 1. The European Security Strategy in Context: A Comprehensive Trend, Sven Biscop 2. The European Security Strategy and Threats: Is Europe Secure?, Jean-Yves Haine 3. The European Security Strategy’s Global Objective: Effective Multilateralism, Richard Gowan 4. The European Security Strategy’s Regional Objective: Neighbourhood Policy, Roland Dannreuther 5. The European Security Strategy and Military Capacity: The First Significant Steps, Jolyon Howorth 6. The European Security Strategy and the Partners, Roberto Menotti and Maria Francesca Vencato 7. The European Security Strategy and the Continuing Search for Coherence, Jan Joel Andersson 8. The European Security Strategy and the United States: The Past as Prologue, Catherine Kelleher Conclusion, Jan Joel Andersson and Sven Biscop

    Biography

    Sven Biscop is a senior research fellow at the Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels and professor of European security at Ghent University, Belgium.

    Jan Joel Andersson is programme director and a research fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, he also teaches international relations at Stockholm University, Sweden.