The European Security Strategy: a framework for EU security interests?

Abstract

There are key differences between the European Security Strategy (ESS), adopted in December 2003, and the US National Security Strategy (USNSS). Whereas the USNSS emphasises the notion of ‘pre-emption’, a unilateralist approach to international security; the ESS commits the EU to a multilateral approach to security challenges, embodied in international law and the UN Charter. Both the ESS and the USNSS embrace a ‘comprehensive concept of security’ in proposing to tackle common security threats by drawing on a developed toolbox. The ESS does prescribe an alternative approach to ‘unilateralism’. However, it presently provides a benchmark to assess European responses to international security rather than describes a manifestly new approach.

Acknowledgement

The author would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the European Community's Human Potential Programme through the ESDP democracy project for the research and writing of this article.

Notes

European Council, Presidency Conclusions, paras. 83–6, Brussels 12–13 December 2003.

References to the adopted document refer to Javier Solana, ‘A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy’, Paris: EU Institute for Security Studies, December 2003.

United States, White House. ‘The National Security Strategy of the United States of America’, September 2002, accessed at www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf.

Ronald Higgins, ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction: Rhetoric and Realities’, ISIS Policy paper No.85, December 2002, accessed at www.isisuk.demon.co.uk/0811/isis/uk/regpapers/no85.pdf.

Alyson Bailes, ‘EU and US Strategic Concepts: Facing New International Realities’, International Spectator, forthcoming, www.iai.it.

Javier Solana in speech to the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris, 30 June 2003, accessed at http://ue.eu.int/pressdata/EN/discours/76423.pdf.

Solana (see n.2 above), p.6.

Ibid., p.9.

Ibid., p.3.

Ibid., p.12.

Judy Dempsey, ‘Words of war: Europe's first security doctrine backs away from a commitment to US-style pre-emption’. Financial Times, 5 Dec. 2003.

Gerrard Quille, Presentation Madrid Workshop, RTN, 11–14 Dec. 2003, accessed at www.esdpdemocracy.net.

Gerrard Quille and Stephen Pullinger, ‘The EU Seeking Common Ground for Tackling the Threat from WMD’, Disarmament Diplomacy, No.74, December 2003.

Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century, London: Atlantic Books, 2003.

Judy Dempsey, ‘Europe loses its innocence over WMD’ Financial Times, 17 June, 2003.

Solana (see n.6 above).

The ESS was finally adopted in the Conclusion of the European Council in December 2003 but is made up of several statements, see Quille and Pullinger (n.13 above).

Council Joint Action of 17 December 1999, Official Journal, of the European Communities, L 331, 23 Dec. 1999, p.11. See also Gerrard Quille, European Security Review, No.20, Dec. 2003, accessed at www.isis-europe.org.

Gerrard Quille, ‘A European Response to WMD: Prevention or Pre-emption?’ European Security Review, No.18, July 2003.

Antonio Missiroli and Gerrard Quille, ‘European Security in Flux’ in Fraser Cameron (ed.), The Future of Europe: Integration and Enlargement, London: Routledge, 2004.

Antonio Missiroli, ‘The EU and Its Changing Neighbourhoods: Stabilisation, Integration and Partnership’, in Judy Batt et al., ‘Partners and Neighbours: A CFSP for a Wider Europe’, Paris: Chaillot Papers, No.64, September 2003.

Batt (see n.21 above), p.119.

Jan Joel Andersson, ‘The European Union Security Strategy: Coherence and Capabilities’, SIIA, 20 October 2003, accessed at www.iss-eu.org/solana/docsto.pdf.

‘Wider Europe-Neighbourhood: A New Framework for Relations with our Eastern and Southern Neighbours’, Brussels, COM (2003) 104 final.

Batt et al. (see n.21 above)

This simple illustration does not neglect the role played by the US, but it serves to highlight a criticism levied against the EU and challenge following the ESS.

Solana (see n.2 above), p.14.

Ibid., p.14–15.

Western European Union (WEU), ‘European Security: A Common Concept of the 27 WEU Countries’, WEU Council of Ministers, Madrid, 14 Nov. 1995.

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Karl Deutsch, Political Community and the North Atlantic Area, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1957.

Solana (see n.2 above), p.1.

See, for instance, The Cotonou Agreement for the Union's role in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States; the Wider Neighbourhood framework; and the Special Representatives covering the Balkans, the Middle East, the South Caucuses, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Afghanistan and the Great Lakes. All information on the role of the Union in these regions can be found at www.europa.eu.int. See also Esther Brimmer, The EU's Search for a Strategic Role: ESDP and its Implications for Transatlantic Relations, Washington: Centre for Transatlantic Relations, 2002.

Gerrard Quille and Jocelyn Mawdsley, Equipping the Rapid Reaction Force: Options for and Constraints on a European Defence Equipment Strategy, Bonn, BICC Paper 33, 2003.

Charlotte Bretherton and John Vogler, The European Union as a Global Actor, London: Routledge, 1999; Emil Kirchner and John Sperling, ‘The New Security Threats in Europe: Theory and Evidence’, Foreign Affairs Review, Vol.7, No.4, 2002; Hanns Maull, ‘Germany and Japan: The New Civilian Powers’, Foreign Affairs, Vol.69, No.5, 1990.

Pullinger, S. and Quille, G., ‘Defence equipment for European crisis management’ POLL, No.123, March 2003.

Paul Cornish and Geoffrey Edwards, ‘Beyond the EU/NATO Dichotomy: The Beginnings of a European Strategic Culture’, International Affairs, Vol.77, No.3, July 2001, pp.587–603.

Ibid.

Solana (see n.2 above), p.12.

Ibid., p.13.

Ibid.

Franco-British Summit – Declaration on ‘Strengthening European Co-operation on Security and Defence’, Le Touquet, 4 Feb. 2003, available at: www.ambafrance-uk.org.

Franco-British Summit – Declaration on ‘Strengthening European Co-operation in Security and Defence’, London, 24 Nov. 2003.

Michael Friend, ‘After Non-Detection, What?’ UNIDIR, No.38, 2003.

Annalisa Monaco, ‘The NRF: More than a Paper Army?’, NATO Notes, Vol.5, No.7, 2003.

Bretherton and Vogler (see n.35 above).

Sven Biscop and Rik Coolsaert, ‘The World is the Stage – A Global Security Strategy for the European Union’, ECPR General Conference, Marburg, 18–21 Sept. 2003.

Jan Joel Andersson. ‘The European Union Security Strategy: Coherence and Capabilities’, Discussion Paper, Stockholm, 20 October 2003.

This was also discussed in the Working Group on Coherence at the EU Security Strategy Seminar in Stockholm, 20 October 2004. See reports of the seminars at: www.eu-iss.org.

Solana (see n.6 above), p.6.

Robert Kagan, ‘Power and Weakness’, Policy Review, No.113, June/July 2003.

UN Chronicle, online edition accessed at www.un.org/Pubs/chronicle/1998/issue1/0198p4_2.html.