European security in NATO’s shadow: Party ideologies and institution building by Stephanie C Hofmann

Abstract

Stephanie C Hofmann European security NATO's shadow: Party ideologies and institution building Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. 264 pp., $99.00 (cloth) ISBN 978-1 107029095Historians and political scientists have long considered domestic politics an important factor the formulation of foreign policy. Demonstrating the link, however, is frequently confounded by a lack of evidence. While politicians and policy makers are keen to explain their decisions as motivated by national interests and security, leaders are often unwilling to concede (especially the documents which end up archives) that electoral concerns motivated their decisions.Stephanie Hofmann's excellent book offers a different way of understanding the causal relationship between partisan politics and foreign policy making. In European Security NATO's Shadow, she argues that party ideologies are the root cause of changes foreign and security policy because they define the perceived national interest, shape efforts at international cooperation, and facilitate international cooperation with like-minded leaders abroad (2). Ideology, Hofmann's formulation, comprises three core elements of European foreign and security policy, complicating the term beyond simple left or right leanings: a party's approach to multilateralism the use of force; its concept of sovereignty and willingness to embrace supranational institutions; and its view of the nature of Europe as a political community (4). With this contribution, Hofmann prompts a broader understanding of national preference formation which takes into account the role of political parties' complete ideologies.To support her thesis, Hofmann explores post-Cold War security institutionbuilding Western Europe. Specifically, she investigates the ongoing struggle to construct an autonomous European defence institution in NATO's imposing shadow motivated by party ideology (4). During the last decade of the twentieth century, she argues, increasing similarity between states' ruling parties' ideologies facilitated cooperation institution-building (36). Hofmann's analysis is predicated upon the reader accepting her assertion that, essentially, when it comes to European security, the only states that matter are Britain, France, and Germany by virtue of their preponderant influence the European policy ecosystem and their military strength (73). Throughout the text, Hofmann identifies and rebuts alternative explanations for the construction of European security institutions outside NATO, including rational choice institutionalism, realism, and an understanding of partisan politics predicated on the left-right dichotomy alone (57).Hofmann's ensuing chapters, however, narrow the scope of her theory from her initial assertion about the broad explanatory power of parties' political ideology to an examination of its impact on three countries' efforts on one specific issue over the span of a decade. The book's main chapters trace the evolution of European security cooperation, particular institution-building, through three key episodes: the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) of 1990-1991, the 1996-1997 Amsterdam Treaty negotiations, and finally the creation of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) from 1998 to 2000. This is the most disappointing aspect of Hofmann's analysis. Despite the strength of these three admirably researched case studies, Hofmann does not connect her conclusions with broader questions. …