The European Union as a security actor: Cooperative multilateralism

Abstract

If the term ‘Cooperative Security’ is rarely used in European Union (EU) parlance, it is at the heart of the EU’s approach to security as expressed in its 2003 European Security Strategy (ESS), together with its comprehensive or holistic nature and its emphasis on conflict prevention. First of all, and traditionally perhaps, Cooperative Security is pursued in what the EU calls its ‘Neighbourhood’: ‘Our task is to promote a ring of wellgoverned countries to the East of the European Union and on the borders of the Mediterranean with whom we can enjoy close and cooperative relations’, says the ESS. The EU pursues this via a strategy of positive conditionality: partnership and access to European markets are to stimulate security cooperation and political, social and economic reforms, thus spreading the EU’s model and values. Cooperative Security and comprehensive or holistic security are thus two sides of the same coin. More recent is the extension of Cooperative Security at the global level, under the guise of ‘effective multilateralism’: ‘We need to pursue our objectives both through multilateral cooperation in international organizations and through partnerships with key actors’, according to the ESS, which calls for ‘Strategic Partnerships’ with ‘all those who share our goals and values and are prepared to act in their support’. This extension of the approach at the global level goes hand in hand with the EU’s slow but steady development as a global actor, and is provoked by the current global environment. Marked by increasing multipolarity, i.e. the rise of ‘emerging’ or ‘re-emerging’ global actors, the ‘changing world order’ creates a sense of urgency. These powers include Brazil, Russia, India and China, commonly known as the BRIC’s, as well as other States with a global scope in one or more policy areas. For Cooperative Security and multilateralism to work and peaceful resolution of disputes to continue, these States too, many of which have a very different model and values from that of the EU, have to be integrated and socialized into the web of regimes, treaties and institutions. The world is not just increasingly multipolar, it is also characterized by increasing interdependence between the poles, which ought to facilitate cooperation. Although other global actors often have different worldviews and competing objectives, all are increasingly interlinked economically, and all are confronted with the same