To Be or Ought to Be: That is the Question of European Security

Abstract

Abstract. The present article examines the tenets of the present European security strategy, beginning with some considerations on the 2003 document ‘A secure Europe in a better world’. It then discusses the need for an ‘ought to be’, that is a sense of direction, for EU security policy and suggests some alternative visions on the ways to elaborate it. It then resort to a brief historical account of the evolution of Europe, once the arena of dramatic rivalries, into a peaceful international society and suggests some often forgotten explanatory elements, while putting under scrutiny the ‘common knowledge’ about how European security has been achieved, referring, for example, to the ambiguous role played by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in this context. A short analysis of the present debate on the nature and objectives of the EU as an international actor in the security field follows. Academic visions and those of practitioners are analysed and confronted. Contrary to the appearances, some ideas emerging from the scholar debate and mirrored in EU documents on security are considered to be functional to the agenda of many practitioners, focused on answering the internal needs of their governments in terms of legitimation of their military forces and increase in public funding for military firms.