1 COMMON SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY
1.3. ANALYSING THE EU GLOBAL STRATEGY ON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY by Sven Biscop
The European Union as we know it came into being in 1993, when the Treaty of Maastricht entered into force and the preceding European Economic Community (EEC) was absorbed into a more overtly political Union which aspired to pursue a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In 1999, a politico-military arm was added to the CFSP; originally the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), it is now known as the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
ABSENCE OF STRATEGY However, the EU’s first strategy, the European Security Strategy (ESS), was only adopted a full four years later, in 2003. Before that time, Member States purposely avoided any strategic debate because of their widely differing views on the degree of autonomy of EU policy vis-à-vis the capitals themselves and vis-à-vis the US. That did not halt progress on other dimensions of foreign and security policy, however: to this day, Member States often pragmatically agree to disagree on one aspect, which allows them to move forward on the issues on which they do agree. It was in this way that they were able to create the CFSP and the CSDP.
STRATEGIC ROOTS The absence of a formal strategy does not necessarily mean that all action is un-strategic. During the first decade of the CFSP, an implicit ‘European way’ of doing things emerged from the practice of EU foreign policy-making, characterised by cooperation with partner countries, an emphasis on conflict prevention, and a broad approach to aid, trade
and diplomacy. This approach had its roots in the external relations of the EEC. Although it had had no formal competence in foreign policy, the EEC had developed dense worldwide trade relations and built up a larger network of delegations than the embassy network of any Member State. This implicit strategy steered the development of EU partnerships and long-term policies, such as development policy. But it proved entirely insufficient when the EU was confronted with crisis. It was the EU’s failure to address the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s, and again in Kosovo in 1999, that drove the institutional development of the CFSP and the CSDP.
TOWARDS THE ESS Even perfect institutions cannot, however, deliver, if there is no strategy on which they can operate on – and the Member States finally came to understand this in 2003. That year, the US invasion of Iraq created a deep divide within Europe, between those who wanted to stand by their most important ally no matter what, and those who felt that even an ally cannot be followed when it so clearly violates one’s own principles and, as would be revealed all too soon, acts against one’s interests. But whatever Europeans thought, it did not matter. This was the great lesson of the Iraq crisis: when Europe is divided, it has no influence. This was the catalyst for the unexpected drive to finally hold a formal strategic debate in the EU and produce a strategic document. EU Member States needed to heal the wounds inflicted by the highly emotional debate over Iraq and project an image of unity to the outside world once
29
