20. Conclusion

This volume is set to explore the phenomenon of EU military research, from a variety of theoretical perspectives and by analysing a variety of actors and processes. The European Commission’s involvement in non-civilian R&D is a development with profound consequences not only for the European security or technology but for the European integration as a whole. All analyses in this volume point to something deeper than merely yet another funding programme; what is at stake here is the very nature and orientation of the European project. It is not by coincidence that the terms ‘innovation’ and ‘militarization’ have been included in the book’s title; they depict the profundity of a phenomenon that has been discursively articulated as a tool for the promotion of technological innovation and capability development but actually takes the form of something much bigger, an all-encompassing trend of militarization that touches upon the economic, political, strategic, institutional and, indeed, ideological foundations of European integration.