Civilian control of armed forces: challenges for the European Union

Abstract

Since 1989 the study of democratic civil military relations has undergone a revival of the formation of new theory. These concepts deal with civilian control of armed forces at a national level. Since after the end of the Cold War, the European employment of military forces within a multinational framework became a regularity, it is now pertinent to ask whether and how these concepts fit at the international level. The construction of Europe and the rise of new security challenges raises the issue of democratic civil military relations in the European Union. The present thesis analyses classical and new theories of civil military relations and applies these to the current issue of security policy and the formation of strategy for a supra-national European Union.