The question of whether the EU is becoming a credible security actor capable of contributing to global stability is important now more than ever. As the EU struggles with recovery from the Eurozone crisis, the US shifts its attention to Asia, and the strain on defense budgets across member states becomes ever more acute, Jolyon Howorth may be right when he describes this period as a 'make or break' time for the future of the Common Security and Defence Policy.
But the question of whether the EU will become a viable security actor goes back to the very founding purpose of this ambitious experiment more than fifty years ago, when forward-looking European leaders sought to end the possibility of another war by pooling production of key military resources, and calling for the creation of a common European defense policy. Since then, despite the predominance of European economic, trade and monetary issues and their global impact, the EU has always been, explicitly or not, about security integration. Is it achievable on the ground, or was it merely an idealistic notion?
European Integration and Security Epistemic Communities
eInternational Relations (the world's leading website for students of international politics), 9 January 2014