Introduction to the forum ‘The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy and the challenge of democratic legitimacy beyond the nation-state’

Abstract

The democratic control and legitimacy of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has received growing attention. However, thus far, studies have mostly focused on ‘blue prints’, i.e., the analysis of formal powers of formal institutions, especially the European Parliament. These studies leave two desiderata that the contributions to this forum aim at overcoming: Firstly, in-depth case studies are required on how formal institutions make actual use of their formal powers in CSDP. Secondly, an examination of the ‘sociocultural infrastructure’ in which formal institutions and decision-making processes are embedded is required. The contributions to this forum redress both deficits. First, the actual practices of parliamentary involvement in the case of the EU's first maritime mission ‘Atalanta’ are examined. Second, the most important dimensions of the ‘sociocultural infrastructure’ are empirically studied, namely public opinion, the public sphere and civil society.

Keywords:

• Common Security and Defence Policy
• democratic deficit
• democratic legitimacy

Notes on contributors

Wolfgang Wagner is Professor of International Security at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research interests include theories of international relations, EU foreign, security and defense policy, and comparative foreign policy analysis. He is author of Die demokratische Kontrolle internationalisierter Sicherheitspolitik (Nomos Verlag).

Cathleen Kantner is Professor for International Relations and European Studies at the Institute for Social Sciences of the University of Stuttgart. Her current research focuses on public debates about European security and defence issues with particular reference to shared normative beliefs. She is the author of Kein modernes Babel. Die kommunikativen Voraussetzungen europäischer Öffentlichkeit (VS Sozialwissenschaften).

Notes

1. Until the Lisbon Treaty (2009), CSDP was named European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).

2. In the following, we will spell ‘Member States’ when we refer to the governments and their representatives as actors on the EU level; and ‘member states’ when we refer to the countries as societies and their citizens.

3. See: among many others: Grimm (1995), Moravcsik (2002) and Føllesdal and Hix (2006).

4. See: Cutler and von Lingen (2003), Thym (2006), Raube (2008) and Barbé and Herranz (2005).