CIAO DATE: 08/05

The European Security Strategy: An Evolutionary History

Preface

On 20 June 2003, barely three months after one of the worst-ever crises of the European Union (EU) generated by the United States-led invasion of Iraq, Europe's leaders meeting in the Council of the European Union were able to unite in welcoming a first draft of a new Security Strategy for the EU. The document, finally adopted by the European Council of 12–13 December 2003 under the title 'A Secure Europe in a Better World', was (in symbolic terms as well as in substance) a bid to reassert the EU's common strategic vision and to strengthen its common will for action in the realm of security. Thanks, not least, to its brevity and clear language, the document attracted wide and largely favourable attention both within the EU's territory and abroad.

Many studies, including some book-length compilations, have been devoted to the European Security Strategy (ESS) since mid-2003. The majority of them have, however, focused either on the ESS as a kind of 'snapshot' of European politics in a troubled period—to be used, notably, in assessing the evolution of European–US relations—or on its adequacy as a basis for the EU's further growth in the field of security and defence. The present study takes a rather different, more historical and institutional approach. It asks questions about the antecedents of the ESS, both political and procedural; about the significance of the way in which it was produced, as well as of its contents; and about the comparison of intention and reality in the way in which the EU's organs and member states sought to follow it up. The December 2003 text of the ESS is reproduced as an appendix for ease of reference. Clearly, an assessment written just one year after the ESS's adoption is no place to offer a final historical judgement on its 'success'. The provisional analysis in this Policy Paper highlights the fact that the European states focused their initial follow—up plan for the ESS on areas of policy where the EU consensus was already relatively solid and collective action already a habit. A better test of the ESS's effectiveness will be whether it helps EU nations and organs to avoid splits and to respond quickly (or even preventively) in the case of future challenges arising outside the sphere of pre-formulated common policies. At the time of writing, the EU's role in responding to the crisis over presidential elections in Ukraine has provided one such example, with not wholly unencouraging results.

As author of this Policy Paper I would like to thank especially Lise Tønnesland, for invaluable research assistance; Rory Keane, for initially inspiring and helping to define the task; Nenne Bodell, Head of the SIPRI Library and Documentation Department; and Jetta Gilligan Borg, SIPRI Editor, who edited the text for publication.

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