Squaring the Circle? Leadership and Legitimacy in European Security and Defence Cooperation

Abstract

This research note addresses the trade-offs between legitimacy and effectiveness in the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The contemporary security environment creates a dual deficiency where neither individual states nor the European Union (EU) can provide effective and legitimate solutions. Leadership is necessary but has to be balanced with the norms of consensus and equality, deeply engrained in EU foreign policy making. The increasing scope and ambition for ESDP in an enlarged EU with 25 members exacerbate this fundamental contradiction. We present a number of internal and external adaptation pressures that lead to this situation and link them to wider conceptual debates about security governance. Noting that the existing academic literature has not paid sufficient and systematic attention to the associated dilemmas, we then outline a comprehensive agenda for research that includes both empirical and conceptual matters worth exploring.