The coordination problem in European defence planning

Abstract

The European Union has taken several steps since 1999 to achieve its so-called ‘headline goal’ for defence coordination: the ability to create and deploy a multinational rapid-reaction force comprised of up to one army corps (50,000–60,000 soldiers) within one to two months. Yet these steps have yielded little, and a subset of EU member states is debating how it might form a single modular brigade of 3,000–5,000 soldiers for a similar purpose. The reason that coordination at the EU level has proved difficult – even as the concept of ‘strategic autonomy’ receives increasing attention – is that member states remain hesitant to subordinate national-level decision-making on defence issues.