The Militarization of the European Union

Description

From the establishment of NATO in 1949, Western Europe has been under Anglo-American tutelage in military and security matters. Several countries, most notably France and (since reunification) Germany, have experienced this as a hindrance to the pursuit of their particular interests. Since 2008, the European Commission has actively joined the quest for strategic autonomy within NATO. The elections of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron in 2016-17 further widened the Atlantic rift, while the COVID-19 crisis with its colossal economic costs has, in turn, exacerbated the already worsening geopolitical tensions with states like Russia and China. With chapters on the politics and economics of European defence, on France, Germany, and Russia, the EUs energy provision, the militarization of migration control, and the restructuring of the transatlantic bond, this volume offers an up-to-date, critical assessment of the militarization of European integration, written by established scholars in the fields of international relations and security studies. Table of Contents List of Tables List of Abbreviations Introduction: EU Defence Plans in the Crisis • Kees van der Pijl 1. Sovereignty, Democracy, and the Monopoly of Violence in Europe • Kees van der Pijl 2. Hijacking European Integration. EU Militarization as a Class Project • Iraklis Oikonomou 3. Defence as France’s Competitive Advantage in the European Union • Claude Serfati 4. Germany: An Imperial Power in The Making? • Hans-Jürgen Bieling 5. Who Will Protect the Baltic Energy Highway? • Kees van der Pijl 6. The European Defence Fund, ASD, and the Kangaroo Group • Iraklis Oikonomou 7. Border Wars. The Arms Players Profiting from Europe’s Refugee Crisis • Mark Akkerman 8. 8. In the Shadow of a New Arms Race. A Russian Perspective • Yury Gromyko 9. The Transatlantic Factor and EU Militarization in the Crisis • Claude Serfati References Contributors