European security and defense policy the dialectics of autonomy

Abstract

France and Great Britain jointly declared Europe's desire for an autonomous security and defense capability in St. Malo, France, on December 4, 1998. Using the Western European Union as a springboard, the European Union created a second pillar wherein lies the Common Foreign and Security Policy and European Security and Defense Policy. To what degree has ESDP helped Europe achieve its goal of autonomous security and defense operations? This thesis explores the concept of autonomy with respect to the European Union's civil-military operations policy under ESDP, by considering intra-organizational relations (autonomy within organizations) and interorganizational relations (autonomy among organizations) employing Principal-Agent and Resource Dependency theory. A dialectic concept of autonomy is then applied to ESDP and examined through a case study of ESDP civilian and military operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While the EU's civilian operations exercise a fairly high amount of autonomy, its military operations are considerably constrained due to member-state prerogatives, a capabilities gap, a subjectivity to United Nations Security Council approval and resource dependence on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.