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The EU's relations with NATO

19 Feb 2014 - 10:06

In this article, Margriet Drent focusses on the relationship between the EU and NATO. She observes a significant gap between the wording of the EU’s European Security Strategy (ESS) and its implementation.

The ESS explicitly refers to the importance of a strategic partnership with NATO, but the actual relationship between the EU and NATO has been characterized by political and functional rivalry. Defining this relationship in terms of selective multilateralism, even nihilateralism, she writes that it has remained largely unaffected by the Libson reforms of 2007 (EU) and 2010 (NATO). This should be understood within the broader trend towards a more pragmatic and flexible approach to security. Drent develops this argument by assessing four stages (competition, formalization, impasse and informalization) and three fields (crisis management, capability generation and the proliferation of informal contacts) of cooperation.

In Drent's view, making effective multilateralism a reality requires a grand bargain with politicians following the example of the staffs of both organizations who have already shown their flexibility in this regard. More generally, Drent raises the question if (effective) multilateralism still has the same meaning as it does in the ESS. After all, multilateral cooperation has become much less institutionalized and formalized, and crisis management settings like the EU and NATO are being used in a rather selective way.

 

This article was published as part of the new book “The EU and Effective Multilateralism. Internal and external reform practices” (2014, Routledge). This book will be launched during an expert meeting in Brussels on March 31.

 

Are you interested in reading the full article? Please order your copy of the book from Routledge via this link.