How to Achieve Defence Cooperation in Europe?

Abstract

This book studies how and why new defence collaborations in Europe are created and argues that the driving force for such collaborations comes from the subregional level. Subregional military cooperations are bilateral and minilateral frameworks outside European-level NATO and EU initiatives. Although subregional defence collaborations are less visible to the public than EU and NATO projects, they provide the backbone for military cooperation in Europe. Hundreds of them exist, and they not only interact with each other but also influence NATO and EU processes. The book offers a theoretical framework to understand the dynamics of the subregional dimension of defence cooperation and suggests that three structural factors and two situational factors are needed to establish a new subregional defence collaboration in Europe. The structural factors are: 1) the existence of the European security community; 2) the perception that individual European armed forces do not have appropriate funds for defence; and 3) previous defence collaborations between the participating states. The situational factors are: 1) strong leadership by a group of enthusiastic high-level officials and good interpersonal chemistry between them; and 2) a supportive political milieu for the defence cooperation. The book provides an interdisciplinary approach and demonstrates how these factors work and how they interact through three case studies: the British–French Lancaster House Treaties, the Nordic Defence Cooperation and Central European Defence Cooperation.