The Issue of Normative Criteria For The European Union’s Conventional Arms Exports

Year 2024, Volume: 4 Issue: 1, 31 - 51, 10.01.2024

Hakan Samur

Abstract

After the end of the Cold War, the European Union has expressed its will to reflect its identity image based on democratic values in its common foreign policy at every opportunity. The issue of conventional arms exports, which can be considered a part of foreign policy, started to be regulated by normative criteria aimed at promoting democratic values and peace in the 1990s. Announced in 1998 in the form of a Code of Conduct, the criteria were transformed into a Common Position document in 2008 and made mandatory. As this article has tried to show, although the EU seems to approach conventional arms exports on the basis of democracy and peace in terms of rhetoric and regulation, member states do not stop acting according to their national and economic interests in practice. The problems arising from the content of the criteria on the one hand, and the lack of transparency of the member states towards each other in terms of information sharing on the other, are among the main evidences that lead to such a conclusion.

Keywords

European Union, Arms Export, Common Position, Normative Power, National Interest

Avrupa Birliği’nin Konvansiyonel Silah İhracatında Normatif Kriter Meselesi

Abstract

Soğuk Savaşın sona ermesinin ardından Avrupa Birliği, demokratik değerlere dayalı kimliksel imajını ortak dış politikasına da yansıtma iradesini her fırsatta dile getirmiştir. Dış politikanın bir parçası sayılabilecek konvansiyonel silah ihracatı meselesi de 1990’larla birlikte demokratik değerleri ve barışı yayma amaçlı normatif kriterlerle düzenlenmeye başlanmıştır. 1998 yılında Davranış Kuralları formunda ilan edilen kriterler, 2008 yılında Ortak Pozisyon belgesine dönüştürülerek zorunlu hale getirilmiştir. Bu makalede ortaya konmaya çalışıldığı gibi, AB retorik ve düzenleme anlamında konvansiyonel silah ihracatına demokrasi ve barış temelli yaklaşıyor görünse de üye devletler uygulamada kendi ulusal ve ekonomik çıkarlarına göre hareket etmekten vazgeçmemektedirler. Bir yandan kriterlerin içeriğinden kaynaklanan sorunlar diğer yandan da üye ülkelerin bilgi paylaşımı noktasında birbirlerine karşı yeterince şeffaf olmamaları, böyle bir sonuca ulaştıran kanıtların başında gelmektedir.

Keywords

Avrupa Birliği, Silah İhracatı, Ortak Pozisyon, Normatif Güç, Ulusal Çıkar

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