Sense and Symbolism: Europe Takes On Human Security

Abstract

human tragedy reaches its climax in the fact that after all the exertions and sacrifices of hundreds of millions of people and of the victories of the Righteous Cause, we have still not found Peace or Security. --Winston Churchill Europe, as identity and union, has undergone an extraordinary transformation since the end of Cold War. In recent history, much of this remarkable change has only accelerated, both with the expansion of membership in the European Union (EU), a growing independence in terms of foreign policy, and an emerging recognition (particularly with the votes of both France and the Netherlands in 2005 regarding support for the European Constitution) that disagreements about Europe's future and identity are inevitable. The cultural and political philosopher J. Peter Burgess has aptly summarized, nonetheless, a major European shift--especially regarding the concept of security: In New & Old Wars Mary Kaldor argues that a new type of organized violence has developed, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, as one aspect of the globalized era. The new wars are, according to Kaldor, characterized by a blurring of the distinctions between war, organized crime, and wide-scale violations of human rights. In contrast to the geo-political goals of earlier wars, the new wars are about identity politics. Kaldor argues that in the context of globalization, ideological and territorial cleavages of an earlier era have increasingly been supplanted by an emerging political cleavage between cosmopolitanism, based on inclusive, universalist multicultural values, and the politics of particularistic identities. The evolution of the European Defense and Security Policy has evolved in the shadow of this mutation. European culture with dubious historical reputation for cosmopolitanism is being thrust upon the global stage at the very moment when its geopolitical concepts are poised on the precipice of desuetude. With Solana's Thessaloniki Summit document A Secure Europe in a Better World the European community of values is being transformed into a security community. (1) Reflecting this recognition, the document Secure Europe in a Better World--most commonly known as the European Security Strategy--stands in somewhat notable contrast to the 17 September 2002 National Security Strategy of the United States of America. (2) Specifically, the European Union strategy emphasizes the notion of cooperative engagement, relying on the strength of 450 million members and the recognition that no one country--perhaps in direct contrast to the US national strategy--can go it alone. Although the concept of hegemony between the United States and Europe seems immensely sensible, reality equally dictates that this sharing is unlikely to occur in the near future. (3) Collectively, documents and policies regarding the development of a European Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) emphasize the necessity for Europe to have the ability for independent action. Especially with the 2001 Helsinki and the call for a 60,000-member European Rapid Reaction Force, Europe has recognized a need for independence from powerful allies (such as the United States) and from powerful alliances (such as NATO). (4) Moreover, the evolution of the European defense responsibility has focused on the so-called Petersberg tasks, which concentrate on and crisis response capabilities that nonetheless fall short of a full-scale intervention force with the ability to sustain combat over prolonged time. As drawn from Article 17.2 of the Treaty of the European Union, and originally stated in the (now defunct) Western European Union Petersberg Declaration of June 1992, these responsibilities entail humanitarian and rescue tasks, peacekeeping tasks, and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking. …