Abstract
Chapter 1 identifies the antecedents and early developments of CSDP as the civilian-military operational arm of EU foreign policy. It applies three broad theoretical perspectives on international politics — neorealist, institutionalist, and constructivist — to explain how and why CSDP operations commence and change. No single theoretical perspective explains EU foreign policy — much less CSDP — just as no single theory explains European integration. However, some theoretical perspectives offer better concepts for understanding CSDP than others. Such concepts are essential to explaining when, why, and how CSDP works; and when, why, and how CSDP does not work. It falls to the theorist to filter the complexity of CSDP into concepts for explanation. By understanding what the CSDP is and does, one has a new and clearer lens through which to examine the European Union’s role in post-Cold War international relations.
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Notes
For a brief history of the failed Pleven Plan that would have established the European Defense Community in the 1950s and the aborted Fouchet Plan for a common foreign and security policy in the 1960s, see chapter one in Ginsberg, R.H. (2010) Demystifying the European Union: The Enduring Logic of Regional Integration (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield).
This section draws on Ginsberg, R.H. (2001) The European Union in International Politics: Baptism by Fire (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield).
Penksa, S.E. and W.L. Mason (2003) ‘EU Security Cooperation and Transatlantic Relations,’ Nordic Journal of Cooperation and Conflict, vol. 38, no. 3, pp. 270–272.
Union, Guide to the European and Defense Policy (Brussels: French Permanent Representation to the EU, 2008).
The CHODs participate in EUMC meetings at least twice yearly. The Working Group of the EUMC, which consists of lieutenant colonels, provides support for the work of the EUMC. Council Secretariat and Commission representatives participate in EUMC formal meetings. For further explanation of the working of the EUMC see Cross, M.K. (2010) Cooperation by Committee: The EU Military Committee and the Committee for Civilian Crisis Management (Brussels: EU Institute for Security Studies).
However, the ESS does not articulate a strategy for CSDP decision-making that prioritizes objectives to guide when and where to take action (and not). As a result, early CSDP operations were launched in a strategy vacuum. A more specific European Security Strategy would help member state identify and allocate scarce resources for CSDP. For further insights, see Biscop, S. and J. Coelmont (2011) ‘A Strategy for CSDP’, Studia Diplomatica, vol. LXIV, no. 1, p. 25.
Giovanni Grevi, G., D. Helly, D. Keohane (2009) European Security and Defense Policy: The First Ten Years (Paris: European Union Institute for Security Studies), p. 414. EU member states have deployed 4,000 troops deployed in CSDP operations in 2010 and approximately 30,000 with ISAF, 7,000 with KFOR, and 6,000 with UN peacekeeping operations. For more information see Biscop and Coelmont, p. 25.
The authors thank the French Permanent Representation to the EU for drawing their attention to the French Presidency of the European Union, Guide to the European and Defense Policy (Brussels: French Permanent Representation to the EU, 2008). This source helpfully explains the decision-making process in CSDP, from mission launch to completion.
Cross, op cit.
For a useful flow-chart of the decision-making process that precedes a CSDP deployment, see Korski, D. and R. Gowan (2009) Can the EU Rebuild Failing States? A Review of Europe’s Civilian Capacities (Cambridge: European Council on Foreign Relations), p. 77.
Cross, op cit.
Ginsberg, R.H. (1989) Foreign Policy Actions of the European Community: The Politics of Scale (Boulder: Lynne Rienner).
Meyer, C.O. (2006) The Quest for a European Strategic Culture (London: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 134.
Ibid.
Cross, op cit., pp. 16–22.
Ibid.
Ibid, pp. 17–18.
Wong in Hill and Smith, p. 167. At the time this volume went to press, a new book on the subject was released. See Wong, R. and C. Hill, (eds) (2011) National and European Foreign Policies: Towards Europeanization (London: Routledge).
Ibid.
Cross, op cit.
Ibid.
The authors here draw on the work of Nau, H.R. (2011) Perspectives on International Relations: Third Ed. (Washington: Congressional Quarterly Press), p. 56.
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© 2012 Roy H. Ginsberg and Susan E. Penksa
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Ginsberg, R.H., Penksa, S.E. (2012). CSDP in Context. In: The European Union in Global Security. Palgrave Studies in European Union Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230367524_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230367524_2
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