The Study Of European Defence Integration Process

At present,the European Union(EU)has developed from a regional integration organization into a global economic actor and an important political role.While tracing back to the source,economic interests are not the original driving force of the integration of Europe.It's the security appeal and defence strategies of Western European countries that drives Europe from division to unity.However,as the starting point and the initial goal of integration,defence policy has become the "backward student" of the integration:the Common Security and Defence Policy(CSDP)is still at the stage of "Strategic Autonomy",and the decision-making of defense policy has not been able to break away from the intergovernmental control.Due to the lack of common budget,the concept of EU Battle Group,which carries many hopes,has also become an ornament.After the Cold War,European defence integration experienced the glory after the"Saint-Malo Declaration" and suffered from the governments' sovereign debt crisis.In June 2016,the results of the Brexit referendum were released:52%of the people were in favor of de-European policy.This result has led many Europeanists to believe that "the spring of European defence integration has come".However,is the UK really the chief culprit in the struggle for European defence integration?What are the impetus and shackles of the development of European defence integration so far?EU and NATO share 22 common member states.Why EU wants to build an independent military force?The differences between NATO and EU have become increasingly prominent.Trump's coming to power has also deepened the contradictions between Europe and America.Will NATO really exist in name only?What will be the future of transatlantic relations?This paper argues that,from the perspective of the "international power system",it is difficult to discover the real cause of the failure of EU defense cooperation in a peaceful environment.Therefore,this paper adopts the perspective of liberal intergovernmentalism(LI).Through the analysis,discussion and hypothesis adjustment of the theory,this comprehensive theory of economic integration is applied to the research of defence integration.Due to the particularity of the defence industry and the dominant position of the government,this paper also introduces the economic variables that affect the density of national preferences of defence integration into the theory,and establishes the analysis framework of the whole paper.Although this study still considers geopolitical interests as major goals of member states' defence policy,it excludes the "high-level politics" attribute of defence policy,and regards defence integration as the cumulative achievement of member states'intergovernmental negotiations in an optional and information-rich environment.This research tries to answer the questions above by analyzing the defence integration preferences,relative bargain power and game strategies of the member countries.Taking the institutionalization of European defence cooperation as the main line of study,This paper reviews four important periods(Post-World War II,the end of the Cold War,the early 2000s and the period after EU referendum),and analyzes the main contents,forms and characteristics of European defence cooperation in each stage based on the process leading by defence integration with the European Defence Community,Western European Union(WEU)and EU.Then,this paper analyzes the geopolitical interests of the member states and the defence industry benefits by the logical framework that the preference density determines negotiation results and shapes the integration process,and has discovered the defence integration preferences that including Atlanticist represented by Britain,Europeanist headed by France and Germany,pragmatic Central and Eastern European states and neutral countries represented by Ireland,which are used as the core variables for analyzing the results of the defence negotiations(rebuild of WEU,Battle Group and EU directives).Finally,this paper explores the relationship between NATO and EU under the theoretical framework of LI,and regards NATO as a "deepening alliance" strategy that changes the relative bargain power of EU member states,and analyzes NATO's influence on European defence integration and the future of transatlantic relations.This paper argues that "the Tao is different and does not work together"-the inconsistency and low density of EU member states' defence integration preferences are the main reasons of the slow development of EU member states' defence cooperation.In the peaceful environment of present,the overlap of geopolitical objectives among member states is narrow,and the security interests are not seriously affected by the externalities of allied policies.The gaming space of the member governments in the EU defence negotiations is relatively small,and their willingness and scope to implement side payment and issue linkages are insufficient.Therefore,the negotiations are not easy to achieve results.Due to the political implications of the defence policy,new defence alliances outside the EU will not lead to the realization of European political integration.Therefore,France or Germany cannot adopt a unilateral alternative policy or an "exclusive alliance" approach to threaten the negotiator to submit,and has to compromise to exchange support from each other.Therefore,the results of European defence integration reflect more policy preferences of the Atlanticist.Moreover,the economic benefits of defence industry cooperation and military power sharing have certain incentives for member states,but only influences more obvious of France and Germany which rely on the EU market,while not significant of the overall effect on European defence integration.Although the exit of Britain provided the impetus for European defence cooperation,it has more disadvantages than advantages for the defence integration.The EU has not only lost a military power,a nuclear power,but also a bridge to transatlantic relations.After Britain's departure,France and Germany' relations will transform from'battle companion' to a unified and antagonistic delicate relationship.The reshaping of the EU's inner power system will be a long-term process,and the turbulence caused by it will also reduce member states' willingness to cooperate in defence.As defence systems with similar functions and different nature,EU and NATO 'relationship is not only plagued by "Dead Lock",but also suffered by the lack of strategy guideline and cooperation principle.By its military advantages,NATO becomes the best choice of "deepening alliance" of the EU member states,that expands the bargain power of the Atlanticist and make it more difficult to achieve European defence cooperation.According to this research,European defence integration is still at an early stage,and NATO's defence status will not be shaken."Complementarity" will become the core principle of the development of transatlantic relations.