DEFENSE COOPERATION IN EUROPE: SUBREGIONAL LEVEL

Abstract

The evolution of subregional cooperation among European nations in security and defense area is the topic of the article. It describes sub-regionalism as a phenomenon and explains the reasons why small states of Europe are eager to cooperate in defense area after the end of the Cold War. Such cooperation is analyzed within the broader context of European integration - a trend which still has a great impact on sub-regional cooperation in certain parts of a common EU and NATO space. According to the article former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe as well as some European neutral states viewed sub-regional groupings as means of security enhancement in a period of transition - a time when these countries were getting ready for fully-fledged integration into European or Euro-Atlantic organizations. Nevertheless, subregional groupings have become even more relevant while EU and NATO enlargements were slowing down. So called threat perception gap among individual members of the EU and NATO contributed to forming of small subregional groupings based on members' security common vision and their aspiration to reach common goals. These groupings estimated as marginal by pan -European organizations, are extremely important for the grouped countries themselves. For European Union and the North Atlantic Alliance it is not easy to govern these subregional trends of multinational cooperation and synchronize them with European and Euro-Atlantic integration as such.