The European Union is a ‘supranational alliance’, first founded in 1957 primarily with economic aims between the six founding member states, however, by 2018 the EU has 28 member states and aims aren’t refined to just economic co-operation and institutions within the EU are only able to act in areas that have been clarified in treaties (Directorate for European Affairs, 2018. Pp. 7-10). The structure of the European Union is often looked at in terms of its three pillars: the European Community, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Justice and Home Affairs (Fijnaut, 2008. Pp. 97). The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was founded in 1949 with the principle of promoting “stability and well-being” within the North Atlantic region. NATO was also founded on the premise of maintaining security and peace in Europe (The North Atlantic Treaty, 1949). In 2010, NATO membership had reached 28 member states, in comparison to the 13 member states in the earlier years (Heywood, 2014. Pp. 259). When looking at the concept of the role of a security actor, a large amount of literature focuses on the idea of security in a more narrow, militaristic sense, however, in recent years security actors aren’t just focused on ‘hard’ security but also issues such as climate change (Zwolski, 2009. Pp. 82, 83). In this essay I will be looking at security in the sense of wars and conflicts, but also issues such as terrorism, migration and cybersecurity. In this essay I will be arguing that the European Union has not replaced NATO as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War, but rather EU-NATO co-operation has been the most significant security actor in Europe after the Cold War. However, I recognise the importance of looking at both the EU and NATO separately. Progression as security actor in Europe after the cold war in both the EU and NATO, however, in this essay I will be arguing the importance of EU-NATO co-operation as a better alternative. Co-operation between the European Union and NATO is arguably the most desirable force due to the security threats faced by Europe (Aghniashvili, 2016. Pp. 67). Both the EU and NATO have made considerable progress as a security actor in Europe after the cold war, however, as single organisations they also have experienced failures. I will therefore be showing both the progress and failures of these two organisations while expressing the overall importance of an EU-NATO co-operation as a security actor in Europe. EU-NATO co-operation has been described as a “marriage of necessity” (Raik and Järvenpää, 2017).
Conflict in Europe
The formation of NATO in 1949 during the Cold War proved its aim to protect European states, particularly from external threats, however, following the end of the Cold War, the future of NATO became unclear. As Michael Vlahos (1991) states, NATO only survived due to the threat posed by the Soviet Union and thus implying the loss of NATO’S influence following the dissolvement of the USSR. However, NATO was able to find its ground post-Cold War. Following the end of the Cold War, NATO had to find a new role, considering its establishment being a response to the Cold War. It therefore newly established itself as an actor for European and international crisis management and peacekeeping (Heywood, 2014. Pp. 259). However, in order to understand if the European Union has replaced NATO as a security actor in post-cold war Europe, it is important to compare the security policies in Europe of both these organisations. For example, the Kosovo Crisis of 1999 has been described as a “turning point” due to the fact NATO took control and pushed the crisis towards a solution and in comparison, the European Union looked weak. This is also compared to the Bosnia Crisis in which NATO proved a more successful security actor than the EU (Kenealy, 2018. pp. 206-208). In response to this, the European Union appeared more committed to European security, which can be seen in the Treaty of Nice in 2003. This treaty meant the Political and Security Commission, known as the ‘PSC’ may be authorised by the Council to be able to manage future crises and be able to make appropriate decisions to ensure calculated leadership (European Commission, 2003). This shows a dedication from the EU to its role of security actor in Europe after the Cold War. However, cooperation between the European Union and NATO has the most effective role as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War. For example, the European Union and NATO have similar natures which therefore, naturally encourage them towards co-operation (Aghniashvili, 2016. Pp. 68). The significance of EU-NATO co-operation as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War can be seen in the conflict in Southern Serbia in which both the European Union and NATO worked effectively together to bring peace and security in this affair. It has been argued that without the efforts of either the EU or NATO in this situation, a full-blown conflict would have been likely (Kriendler, 2004. Pp. 65). Another example of the importance of the relations between the European Union and NATO is the successful missions in the Balkans. This was successful due to the ‘Berlin Plus’ Agreement (2003) which allowed the European Union to use NATO assets for issues involving crisis management (Aghniashvili, 2016. Pp. 68).
The European Union has made efforts to maintain a role as a security actor in Europe since the end of the Cold War, such as the Europe Security Strategy (2003) with its aim to promote “cooperative relations”. The European Union also showed its commitment of its role as a security actor in Europe with the establishment of the ‘Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’, known as the OSCE, which claims to take a “comprehensive approach to security”, in particular with the focus on human rights. It claims to be not just Europe’s largest security organisation, but the worlds (Kenealy, 2018. Pp. 196). However, this comprehensive approach to security has been criticised, for example when looking at the European Security Strategy in 2003, it describes security threats as a predominately external policy (Fijanut, 2008. Pp. 98). The introduction of the ‘European Security and Defence Policy’ (ESDP) in the post-Maastricht period was mainly in response to the Wars in the Balkans during the 1990s and uncertainty surrounding the involvement of the United States in European conflicts in the future (Kenealy, 2018. Pp. 39). This shows how the European Union was making progress as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War, however, the idea of the European Union as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War relies on the tensions that exist within certain member states, such as the juxtaposition between members like the UK with an “Atlanticist approach” and countries such as France who typically have a more “Europeanist approach” (Heywood, 2014. Pp. 506). This could arguably may undermine the role of European Union as a security actor. However, the significance of an EU-NATO co-operation as a security actor in Europe can be shown through this comprehensive approach to security as a close relationship between the European Union and NATO is essential in developing this ‘compressive approach’ in order to deal with crisis management (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, 2018).
The European Union presented a ‘global strategy’ for their foreign and security policy on the 28th June 2016. Raik and Järvenpää (2017) note how one of its main priorities was an advanced role for the Common Security and Defence Policy, showing how the EU is a considerable security actor in Europe, however, emphasis was also placed on an EU-NATO co-operation. The role of EU-NATO co-operation as a security actor in post-cold war Europe is significant due to the security issues facing post cold war Europe, such as terrorism, cyber security and the migration and the refugee crisis. On the 13th December 2016, the President of the European Council, NATO Security General and the President of European Commission vowed to take EU-NATO co-operation on issues such as security to “a totally new level”. Croft outlines the EU’s need for NATO and vice versa. He looks at the European Union’s Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP) and whether this can be developed on the concept of an alliance and co-operation with NATO. If Europe is to thrive in the sense of the security field, it has no other alternative than to work with NATO. However, the CESDP also has the possibility of being useful to NATO, for example alliance with the EU in areas like defence. As a result, NATO and the European Union should be viewed as an alliance (Croft, 2002. pp. 101). Rühle and Williams (1995, pp. 85) touch upon importance of both the EU and NATO as security actors in Europe following the end of the Cold War, for example they explain how the ‘shaping’ of the security landscape of Europe is both their main security venture and as a result of this shared strategic interest, increased cooperation between the European Union and NATO could create a secure environment.
Terrorism
Terrorism poses a threat to the security of Europe and its citizens, which was proven in the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London attacks (Martín, 2017. Pp. 247). The European Union’s response to this was the establishment of ‘The European Union Counter-Terrorism Strategy’ (2005) in order to defeat terrorism while protecting human rights. It was based on the aspect of “prevent, protect, pursue, respond” (Council of the European Union, 2005). However, even after this establishment a large amount of counter-terrorism actions are refined to within decision-making in separate nations, rather than the European Union as a whole (Coolsaet, 2010. Pp. 858). In the Mediterranean, NATO has been conducting a defence mission as a reaction to the threat of terrorism, such as adopting new strategies, for example consequence management in order to prevent future terrorist attacks (Never, 2007. Pp. 35). However, NATO can be criticised for its focus on areas outside of Europe, for example, it has been discussed that NATO should re-focus on European security. According to Christopher S. Chivvis (2009), following the end of the Cold War NATO has frequently gone out of area. NATO should be seeking a closer co-operation with Russia on issues including security and as a result NATO could encourage the discussion of reducing “member state nuclear arsenals”. A NATO summit was held in Prague in 2002 which resulted in the ‘Military Concept for Defence Against Terrorism’ to be set up as a response to the threat of terrorism and the following summit in Istanbul allowed the discussion for the areas in which NATO could play a part in counter-terrorism (Bird, 2015. Pp. 62). However, significance of an EU-NATO alliance as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War was shown during the Prague summit as it was announced that the terrorism threat, such as 9/11, has proved the importance of “cooperation between our two organisations” in terms of “security” and “defence” (Kriendler, 2004. Pp. 65). The Joint Declaration (2016) which outlined the strategic relationship between the European Union and NATO in the area of European security also outlined their shared aim of counter- terrorism (European Council, 2018).
Migration
Since the end of the Cold War, immigration has increased, especially in Southern Europe. As a result, the need to build a consensus around a shared EU migration policy has therefore increased and many EU member state’s main concern is surrounding irregular migration and border control (Pietsch, 2015. Pp. 45, 47). Migration crisis which began in 2015 following an influx in unregistered migrants into the European Union. This caused issues for the EU such as the EU and Turkey’s agreement in 2016 to “staunch migration flows” in the eastern Mediterranean (Kenealy, 2018. Pp. 42). Immigration control has been linked to a general movement of stopping security threats deemed “dangerous”, linking migration to terrorism which is known as the ‘securitised approach’ (Mitsilegas, 2012. Pp. 5). The extent of the European Union as a security actor in Europe when looking at the migration crisis has been regarded as a failure due to the institutions in the EU having limited powers to intervene in “a sovereign domain”, however the European Agenda on Migration was published (2015) with the aim of creating ‘hotspots’ to bring agencies within the EU together to register and identify incoming migrants (Collett and Le Coz, 2018. Pp. 6,10). An example of the importance of EU-NATO co-operation as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War can be seen in the ‘Operation Sea Guardian’ (2016) which aimed to improve the migration crisis by bringing awareness to the maritime situation. It has been argued that this operation showed the benefits of EU-NATO co-operation and unity (Drent, 2018).
Missile threats
Following the end of the Cold War, there has been a complexity of threats towards Europe, such as nuclear and chemical weapons and ballistic missiles – being a weapon of choice for an increasing number of states as they see them at high-impact, yet low-cost to effectively offset Europe’s military advantages. NATO has been looking at the requirements for missile defence for multiple years (DeBiaso, 2009. Pp. 35, 40). However, co-operation between the European Union and NATO is important when looking at the security threats that go along side nuclear and missile threats. According to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (2018), both NATO and the European Union have shared information on their activities in protecting the citizens of Europe against potential attacks, ranging from nuclear, chemical, radiological and biological. A study by the European Parliament policy department stresses the importance of the European Defence Agency to strengthen EU-NATO co-operation in the area of missile threats (2011, pp.5).
Cybersecurity
NATO described cybersecurity attacks as a threat to “national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security and stability”. In 2008 NATO issued a ‘Policy on Cyber Defence’. During December 2016, NATO foreign ministers declared their approval of an EU-NATO co-operation by outlining the measures to be taken in order to develop this relationship further, one of which included the “exchange of information on cyber threats” (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, 2018). In the last 10 years or so, both the European Union and NATO have acknowledged that cybersecurity is a key challenge to their main aims of broader security (Ilves et al, 2016. Pp. 127). This reinforces the importance of a EU-NATO co-operation as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War as it allows us to see the common strategic interests that are shared by both these organisations (Rühle and Williams, 1995. pp. 85). This was put into action in the Joint Declaration on EU-NATO cooperation (2018) in Brussels in which it was declared that the European Union and NATO had increased their ability in responding to threats such as cyber -attacks.
Conclusion
In conclusion, EU-NATO cooperation holds the most importance as a security actor in Europe after the Cold War, most ideal, using powers of both these organisations to act as a security actor. Important as both the European Union and NATO are faced with the same security threats and therefore have more potential as a security actor in Europe when co-operating than working as separate organisations. Faced with security threats such as potential conflicts, terrorism, cyber security and the migration crisis. There has much a substantial amount of progress made towards greater EU-NATO cooperation. However, I recognise the roles of both the European Union and NATO as separate organisations in their efforts to protect European citizens and target security threats within Europe, but the unity of the European Union and NATO has proved effective in areas such as the migration crisis as I have looked at Operation Sea Guardian.
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