Greek national security concerns and the European Union's common security and defense policy Consensus or divergence?
Download
Author
Menychtas, Charalampos
Date
2011-09Advisor
Halladay, Carolyn
Second Reader
Rogalski, Dirk
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
One of the most important yet insufficiently researched dynamics of the European Union (EU) concerns its effectiveness in accommodating the security concerns of its members. With NATO dominating the collective security market of the old continent, the launch of the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) in 1999 generated an interesting security option, and silently partitioned the NATO members of the EU into a "euro-atlanticist" and a "euro-continentalist" group, with the nonduplication of NATO being the point of contention. With Greece's major security concern deriving from Turkey, a fellow NATO member, Athens holds a firm position in the latter group, seeking to turn the evolving European defense project into a counterweight to NATO in guaranteeing Greek national security. While Greek security priorities have remained remarkably consistent, the ambitious European defense project has undergone various fluctuations, reflecting the awkward development in its evolution. As a consequence, Greece's anticipations of a CSDP commitment in its national security concerns have oscillated accordingly: periods of positive signs succeeded periods of disillusionment and vice versa. Against this background, this paper attempts to elucidate Greek perceptions of its security providers and aims to give an answer to the following question: Are Greek security concerns reflected in the CSDP? In other words, is the EU an adequate security provider for Greece? This thesis argues that the territorial security concerns of the EU's member-states, especially those of Greece, cannot be fully assuaged under the CSDP auspices. More specifically, the CSDP does not adequately address Greek national interests, if defending these interests entails a European military response.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Greek national security concerns and the European Union's common security and defense policy: Consensus or divergence?
Menychtas, Charalampos. (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2011-09);One of the most important yet insufficiently researched dynamics of the European Union (EU) concerns its effectiveness in accommodating the security concerns of its members. With NATO dominating the collective security ... -
The Balkans at the turn of the century: challenges for Greece and European Security Institutions
Milas, Adamantios (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2000-06);The changes that occurred in the Balkans since 1991, following Soviet Union's dissolution and the breakup of Yugoslavia, revived the violent history of the Balkan Peninsula. The Kosovo war in 1998 aggravated the situation ... -
A common European security and defense policy in the European Union: Greek policy and strategy on ESDP
Fakitsas, Miltiadis (Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School, 2003-06);Since 1998, the European Union (EU) has begun to develop a Common European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), which provides a stronger role in the security and defense areas in order to become a more important actor in ...