Blair's Britain And The European Security And Defense Policy (1997-2007):A National Projection Europeanization Perspective

The cooperation in the security and defense under the European Community(the EC)/the European Union(the EU),compared with the one in other fields,started late and progressed only at snail's pace.The EU,as a result,was more often than not ridiculed for the asymmetry in its power.But since British Prime Minister Tony Blair,together with French President Jacques Chirac,published the St.Malo Declaration in 1998,this field seemed to brace for a change of fate,and,for the next 10 years or so,the cooperation under the European Security and Defense Policy(ESDP)has been one of the brightest spots in the European Integration.As it was shown during the Iraq Crisis,however,that Britain's attitude was not consistent,and unalterable,annd,not unrelated,the development of the ESDP was far from smooth.This dissertation examines,through the national projection Europeanization perspective,the reasons for Blair's Britain to initiate and promote/ignore the ESDP,and its influence on the ESDP development.The dissertation consists of seven chapters.As the introduction,the first chapter contains a review of the literature,an outline of the dissertation's structure,and an explanation of the methods and materials used in the study.The second chapter,as a preparation for the whole study,presents an introduction of the Europeanization as a theory and an account of Britain's attitude towards and engagement with the security and defense cooperation in Europe from the end of the Second World War to 1997,the year in which the New Labour Party won the general election and Blair entered No.10 Downing Street.As an intellectual response to the emerging actormess of the EC/EU,the Europeanization theory focuses on the interaction between the EC/EU and its member states,and the interaction results.Europeanization is a two-way process with both 'bottom-up' and'top-down' dimensions.What is relevant in this study is the latter,that is the national projection Europeanization.Through it,the member states seek to upload their own norms,advocacies and policies onto the European level,in order to influence the emerging institutions and governance.During the years following the Second World War,Britain,under the guidance of the "three circles" principle,adopted a "limited liability' strategy in Europe,that is,to provide support for but stop short of deep involvement in Continental Europe.The Suez Crisis proved the mismatch of Britain's resources to its ambition to maintain the world power status,and impelled it to put priority on helping to provide security for the Western Europe through the presence of US troops via NATO.In 1984 the West European Union was reactivated,and Britain came to acknowledge the fact that Europe had some security concerns of its own independent of NATO and accepted the West European Union as a security forum for Europe.However,it still refused to see the EU having a hand in defence.The third chapter explores the reasons behind Britain's change of heart regarding the security and defence cooperation in the EU,and its attitude towards and influence on the ESDP from the publishment of the St.Malo Declaration to"9/11" terrorist attacks.The world political landscape changes resulting from the end of the Cold War and the acceleration of the European integration raised member states' anticipation that the EU should play a role in the security field,and the pro-European New Labor under the leadership of Blair,once installed as the governing party,transformed this anticipation into policy initiatives.As far as the development of the ESDP is concerned,in this phase,Britain played a leading role in both conceiving and implementing "the Helsinki Headline Goals";It also successfully Europeanized its minimalist advocacy into the skeleton institutions of the ESDP(the Political and Security Committee,the Military Committee,and the Military Staff)and paved the way for putting in place the basic institutional bridge between the EU and NATO by helping to solve the third country problems.The fourth chapter analyzes Britain's attitude towards and influence on the ESDP in the context of the new American foreign policy in the wake of "9/11"terrorist attacks and the rising trans-Atlantic tension.Bush doctrine,with its unilateralist edge,took shape soon after the "9/11" attacks and partly led to the unprecedented trans-Atlantic crisis over Iraq issue.Under such circumstances,the tension arose between Britain's role anticipation for the EU and EU's role possibility.As a result,Britain chose to bandwagon with the United States,demonstrating once again its Atlanticist and internationalist colors at the expense of its European credit.When it comes to security and defense policy,in this phase,Britain's policy betrayed some extent of renationalization both in Afghanistan and Iraq.The deteriorating relation and hostility between Britain and its former natural partner in developing the ESDP,France,were both causes and signs of ESDP's stagnation.And the revitalization of Franco-Germany axis threatened to marginalize Britain once again in the European integration process,even in the security and defense field.The fifth chapter explores the reasons behind Britain's refocus on the ESDP immediately after the Iraq War and Britain's attitude towards and influence on the renewed development of the ESDP.After the Iraq War,the trans-Atlantic relation was quick in recovering,so the overall context for Britain's Europeanization of the security and defense policy was restored.Furthermore,the seriousness of the asymmetrical threat,as illustrated by the "9/11" attacks and the further enlargement of the EU,added to the member states' anticipation of EU's role in the security and defense field.In the course of renewing the development of the ESDP,with regard to the strategic culture,Britain,"privileged" by Robert Cooper's direct involvement in drafting,successfully sneaked its preference and advocacies into the text of the European Security Strategy.When it comes to the capability development,Britain again played a leading role in architecting and implementing "the 2010 Headline Goals",but,as shown in the European Defense Agency and the European Battle Group,Britain's push for capability development was increasingly running into the limit walls it erected around institutions.Regarding institutions,with the exception of the European Council Presidency which it proposed and sucessfully promoted,Britain was initially on the defensive,but through active engagement,it could eventually upload its minimalist and Atlanticist preference into the reformed or new institutions.The sixth chapter examines Britain's attitude towards the ESDP,as a Blair legacy,under Brown's and Cameron's leaderships and British influence on the ESDP at this stage.Both Brown and Cameron saw no personal stake in the ESDP,but,at the same time,the documents published by their governments show that Britain's self role perception and role participation for the EU were not unlike those of Britain under Blair,when he launched "the St.Malo initiative.”As regards Britain's attitude towards and influence in the continued development of the ESDP,Ashton was appointed as High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and coordinated the set-up of the European External Action Service which she was going to lead.The Coalition Government under Cameron showed some reservation about the Defense Agency,and thus gave rise to some uncertainty about its future;America's somewhat "U-turn" in attitude towards an EU headquarter will put to test Britain's conventional position.Whereas the Anglo-Franco Treaties bears no direct connection to the ESDP,mutual trust cultivated through cooperation between the two leading countries in the European security and defence cooperation will be helpful to the development of the ESDP.The last chapter,as a conclusion,presents a general evaluation of Britain's Europeanization of the security and defense policy and takes stock of the reasons behind its success.It aslo manages to draw the implications of Britain's role in the ESDP for the overall Anglo-European relations and the insights brought by the Europeanization theory to the observation of the ESDP's future development.