Of politics and policies. Thinking strategically about the EU

I just published a book chapter entitled “Of politics and policies. Thinking strategically about the EU” in an edited volume about IR theories and European Security.

I reproduce the abstract below: “Tools of classical strategic analysis support distinctive explanations for the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) of the European Union. Looking at the articulation between ends, ways, and means offers a perspective on the CSDP that is different from the approaches usually favoured by European Union specialists or even security studies scholars. In particular, it is argued here that the CSDP is no strategy, and little more than an institutional make-up for the lack of strategic thinking within the European Union. First, I show that the CSDP is not European security, and that the EU security policy is astonishingly absent from the security challenges facing Europe. Second, I argue that this situation stems from a lack of a political project within the European Union. In its simplest form, strategy is the art of creating power, but must be based on a political project. Short of a political project for European security, we will not see a strategic CSDP any time soon”.