Practices And Prospects Of EU's Hedging Strategy Against The Unites States For Defense Integration

The European Union(EU)is a unique example for modern nation states to successfully overcome hostility and settle disputes through cooperation and integration.Military force is no longer a priority in settlement of disputes between EU member states.Security principles of transparency,openness,cooperation and interdependence have deeply rooted in people's mind in mainland Europe.Half a century of European integration has given member states unprecedented security,freedom and prosperity.But in the last decade,the EU seems to undergo a stalled development and the international community has become pessimistic about its prospects.The defense integration,the highest level of political cooperation,is even more difficult.This dissertation starts with explaining the concept of EU defense integration.The dissertation insists that the motivation of EU defense integration is to address the limitations of the US-dominated NATO system in defense security.By defining the concept of hedging strategy in international relations,the dissertation believes that the EU has adopted a hedging strategy against the United States in order to achieve defense integration.Chapter ? firstly sorts out the origins of the EU defense integration with a detailed review of European countries' unremitting pursuit of regional security through collective defense after World War II,which shows that the EU defense integration has always been a primary goal of EU integration.Then,it analyzes different stages of the EU defense integration development and current status of EU defense integration process.It can be seen that the establishment of the EU's Common Security and Defense Policy and the implementation of “Permanent Structured Cooperation” have substantially promoted the process of EU defense integration,but there still exist a problem that the EU is short of independent defense capability and military expenditure.Chapter ? first analyzes the EU's motivation of adopting a hedging strategy against the United States in order to promote defense integration.It is believed that the EU's internal motivation is to enhance EU strategic decisions and disengage itself from heavy dependence on the US-dominated NATO system in defense security,while the huge change in the US security strategy after the end of the Cold War contributed to its external motivation.Then,Chapter IV analyzes the specific measures of hedging strategy and their effects.Under the guidance of defense pragmatism,the EU has strengthened its institutionalized bonds with NATO and established the EU-NATO strategic partnership.To avoid being dominated,the EU has strengthened its defense capability.For indirect checks and balances,the EU has come into defense and security cooperation with Russia,a rival of the United States.Chapter ? describes the prospects of the EU's hedging strategy in the defense integration.Hedging strategy is under influence both externally and internally.Externally,low external security pressure after the end of the Cold War made the EU hesitant to push ahead with defense integration.The United States and Russia also influenced EU's hedging strategy.Internally,the difficulty in uniting a large number of EU member states and the lack of military expenditure and defense capability prevented the development of defense integration.In addition,Brexit brings uncertainty to EU defense integration.This dissertation argues that although the EU is pushing forward its defense integration slowly,the hedging strategy has reached some achievements.The risk hedging policy taken by the EU indicates that NATO,EU's military alliance,has strong hard power and represents “fist” and “stick”.The EU's defense capability is under construction,obviously featuring civil use and low intensity.The EU focuses more on soft power,which represents “carrot” and “candy”.EU and NATO can coexist and stay in harmony.The EU intends to reach a balance between EU independent defense and “trans-Atlantic security cooperation”,so that it can not only exploit EU's unique political advantages to the full,but also make good use of the US-dominated NATO military force.