| Review of: | The Quest for a European Strategic Culture: Changing Norms on Security and Defence in the European Union by C.O. Meyer |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Amelia Hadfield |
| Reviewed in: | Journal of Common Market Studies |
| Date accepted online: | 02/11/2007 |
| Published in print: | Volume 45, Issue 03, Pages 745-769 |
Book Reviews
Are Europe's national strategic cultures gradually becoming more similar? Christoph Meyer's new book examines this possibility, and suggests that 'national strategic cultures in Europe, although still distinct, have converged substantially' enough to provide an 'ideational and normative space for the emergence of a European strategic culture'. This in turn could contribute positively to the future development of the European security and defence policy (ESDP).
Meyer's project is ambitious because it attempts four goals at once. He tackles the origins of normative change on the question of strategy. His comparative research design then identifies four key strategic norms in four large Member States: Britain, France, Germany and Poland. Having assessed both stasis and shifts in these norms, Meyer indicates the contours of an existing European strategic culture, from which he then assesses the potential for the ESDP.
Closet historians will certainly find appealing his in-depth look at deep-seated norms, beliefs and ideas about French self-perception, German ideas of legitimacy of force, British concepts of means and ends as well as Polish perceptions about the future of the ESDP. Social scientists will be impressed by the layered approach of constructivist, realist and sociological institutionalist theories marshalled to explore his four goals. Meyer uses four key norms to unpack the troublesome area of strategic culture, allowing him to identify historical and contemporary attitudes that have arisen in these four countries on the legitimacy, authorization, application and alliances involved in the use of force.
Meyer provides a timely and well researched picture of European strategic culture and ESDP potential, and is to be commended for his attempts at analysing the infinitely tougher connection between the two. The data gathered from a comprehensive round of interviews of various levels of national and EU political elites and a thorough assessment of public discourses (via newspapers and public opinion surveys) suggests that strategic cultures in Europe are indeed becoming more similar. Crisis learning from Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq has triggered broad support among elites and publics for a more robust European defence policy. This normative convergence, however, is visibly uneven across the four national strategic norms. In some cases - especially where Britain is concerned - this translates into downright incompatibility over the legitimate role of the EU as a security actor. Divergence is apparent over why and how European defence should be used, suggesting that the 'space' for a European strategic culture is not yet sufficiently populated by broad agreement across all four key national strategic norms.