European Union and Strategy

This edited volume sets out to explore the paradox that the European Union (EU) produces policies with strategic qualities, but lacks the institutions and concepts to engage in strategic reasoning and action proper. The book has a two-fold agenda, exploring current EU external policies that are, or seem to be, linked to strategic priorities, and also studying the concept of strategy in the particular context of EU decision- and policymaking. The volume first examines the character of the Union as a strategic actor at this stage of its development. It then explores the ability of the Union to act and otherwise influence both its periphery and the wider world, focusing in particular on how it is perceived by other actors. The final section comprises personal assessments by a group of contributors regarding the character of the union as a strategic actor in the present and future. When these are pieced together, a picture emerges of a European strategy in the making, albeit one that so far is modest and partial. This book will be of interest to students of European Security, European Politics and IR.

Jan Hallenberg is Professor of Political Science at the Swedish National Defence College, and Adjunct Professor at Stockholm University. Kjell Engelbrekt is Senior Lecturer of Political Science at the Swedish National Defence College.

Introduction Jan Hallenberg Part 1: Constraints and Capacities 1. Machiavelli and the Making of a European Security And Defence Strategy Kjell Engelbrekt 2. The EU Made Me Do It: Drivers of Multinational Security and Defence Policy Janne Haaland Matlary 3. The EU as a Military Strategic Actor Lars Wedin 4. Analyzing EU's Shared Strategy Malena Britz and Arita Eriksson Part 2: Strategic Entanglements 5. The Ambivalent Power: The United States and European Security and Defence Policy Gale A. Mattox 6. Europe's Emergent but Weak Strategic Culture: The Case of the EU, Iran and Nuclear Weapons Diplomacy Sten Rynning 7. The EU's Democratic Norm Project for Eurasia: Will the Beauty Tame the Beast? Bertil Nygren Part 3: Actor on a Global Scale? 8. Why Three Straight Lines Rarely Form a Triangle: US, EU and Chinese Strategies in the 21st Century François Géré 9. A Neurotic Centaur: The Limitations of the EU as a Strategic Actor Adrian Hyde-Price 10. A Progressive European Union, A Problematic United States: An Exceptional Experiment Contends with American Exceptionalism Andrew L. Ross 11. The EU as a Strategic Actor, 'Re-Actor' or Passive Pole? Charlotte Wagnsson Conclusion 12. Conclusion: A Strategic Actor under Permanent Construction? Kjell Engelbrekt and Jan Hallenberg