Balancing or Bandwagoning? Europe's Many Relations with the United States

Abstract

As framed here, the key question regarding the larger debate about the European approach(es) to the United States after the end of the Cold War is: are the Europeans bandwagoning or balancing? And in that context, how should the development of the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) be interpreted? Both articles provide valuable insights into the dynamics of transatlantic relations, yet they both miss important (although different) parts of the larger picture. First, this response to the two articles argues that the CSDP can be understood neither as balancing behaviour nor as an attempt to bandwagon with the United States for the simple reason that the CSDP is little but a paper tiger. For all practical purposes there is no common European security and defence policy. Second, it is argued that the structural realist tendency to see the Europeans' behaviour as either balancing or bandwagoning is futile. Some European nations clearly bandwagon; others are pursuing a more independent and autonomous approach to the United States.