A Special Partnership? The EU’s Military Ambition and the Role of Britain

Abstract

The EU has the ambition of developing more common security and defence policy, even a defence union, and has taken some steps towards establishing common procurement policy and creating a strategic culture. “Soft power is not enough” Commission chairman Juncker stated in a surprising statement in 2017; speaking on behalf of the polity that has branded itself a ‘soft power’ actor, and as a unique one in this regard. The theme of this chapter is whether this development will affect Britain’s role after Brexit. The major part of the analysis is devoted to whether these EU ambitions is likely to result in a common defence policy of any kind. EU policy statements are surprisingly ambitious given the fact that neither the battle groups nor the procurement agenda has been a success in terms of substance. In order to assess the potential substance of the present set of declared goals I examine the three cases of Russian revisionism, terrorism, and migration policy in order to find out whether the EU is able to use hard power tools to any effect. The period under scrutiny is 2014–present. Based on the empirical findings from this analysis I make an assessment of EU hard power ability and its consequences for Britain after Brexit.

This chapter (the discussion of EU policy and the discussion of France) contains some excerpts from my chapters on the EU, Britain, and France in my book Hard Power in Hard Times: Can Europe Act Strategically? Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, UK.