New book on national visions of EU defence policy

The contributors to the book 'National vision of EU defence policy - Common Denominators and Misunderstandings' aim to identify misunderstandings, common denominators and rigid deadlocks in the strategic debate around the EU Common Security and Defence Policy.

The book is edited by Federico Santopinto (GRIP) and Megan Price of the Clingendael Conflict Research Unit.

Individual expectations

Inspired by the confusion about EU defence policy in most European capitals, the premise of this study is simple: before discussing at Brussels-level what defence strategy the EU should adopt, member states should clarify what they expect individually from the EU Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).

Tool to pursue national interests

This authoritative study inverts the usual analytical approach applied to the debate on European strategy. Rather than initiating the enquiry from the perspective of common interests guiding CSDP, it analyses how seven prominent member states see CSDP as a tool to pursue their strictly national interests.

Five researchers thus took the opportunity to immerse themselves in the foreign policy worlds of Paris, London, Berlin, Rome, Warsaw, Stockholm and Madrid, looking at CSDP through national lenses – away from potentially distorting influence of the ‘Brussels’ rhetoric.

National vision of EU defence policy - Common Denominators and Misunderstandings does not set out to analyse European defence policy as an end in itself or as a collective project, but rather as a vector of individual – indeed self-interested – visions for the member states studied.