Global Strategy Choices (GSC): Prognosis and Strategic Planning for European Foreign and Security Policy

Abstract

The European Security Strategy (ESS) is currently being reformulated. This working paper puts forward a new methodological approach in the construction of global strategies for stakeholders in the international system. It makes the case that contemporary strategy formulation (including the ESS) insufficiently assesses contemporary global security challenges. One reason is the sectoral specific analysis that restricts the ability of the analyst to perceive the problem in other areas, and of the interconnected nature of modern security threats to various referent objects. This working paper takes the European Union (EU) as a case in point when regarding strategies with a specific sectoral/level dimension. The EU has advanced toward more comprehensive strategies; however, these still remain confined to specific sectors and levels of analysis (mostly the national level) thereby inhibiting comprehensive analysis. This working paper proposes a new method of global strategy formulation by adopting the Copenhagen School’s constructivist approach as a basis. The working paper focuses on a particular aspect of EU foreign and security policy. The investigation takes the European Security Strategy (ESS) into focus and analyses its structure and its ability to meet contemporary security challenges. The paper also questions whether the ESS is able to meet the security challenges facing the EU. Adopting a new methodology for the construction of global strategies will be a prerequisite if the EU intends to remain capable of meeting the security challenges it faces. Only by systematically understanding security threats in a multilevel and multi-sectoral manner, will the EU be able to construct comprehensive strategies in order to adequately reform the ESS. The subject of this paper has recently become highly relevant. The European Council of the 25-26 June 2015 concluded that the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy was to continue to conduct a strategic review and prepare an EU global strategy on foreign and security policy to be submitted by June 2016.