When Soft Power Turns Hard: Is an EU Strategic Culture Possible?

Abstract

Abstract Posing the question of whether the European Union is likely to develop a strategic culture, this article discusses the concept of human security as the possible basis for a novel type of such a culture. It argues that there are incentives for governments to ‘pool’ sovereignty in the security and defence field on the logic of two-level games, while noting that EU institutions themselves are developing both political and military capacities at present. The sensitive issue of developing a strategic culture for coercive diplomacy and the consequent use of force is not progressing. However, the ideological basis for a post-national strategic culture based on human security provides a window of opportunity for the EU.

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