The Underlying Dynamics of the European Security and Defence Policy

Year 2004, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 119 - 147, 01.04.2004

Sinem A Açıkmeşe

Abstract

Throughout the last decade, the European Union EU has been engaged in a broader debate about its functioning. At the apex of these discussions are the issues of economic and monetary integration, enlargement and institutional reform. At the same time, the EU’s role in the security and defence realm is being questioned by what has become known as the ‘Common European Security and Defence Policy’ CESDP project. AngloFrench cooperation became the motor of this project immediately after the British Prime Minister, Mr. Blair and President Chirac of France agreed, at Saint-Malo in December 1998, on adding a defence dimension to the EU’s existing structures. From this early initiative, through the lessons of the humanitarian war in Kosovo, the pace of development has been rapid, resulting in the CESDP project that derived from the earlier concept of ‘European Security and Defence Policy’