The impact of ESDP on EU-NATO relations

Abstract

It could be argued that the end of the Cold War had given the EU the opportunity to forge itself as the security agent in Europe even though by the mid-1990s the atmosphere as well as the situation had changed. NATO was remerged and took the initiative to develop the defense policy. As Sjursen (1998: 95) states that the notion of a European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) was not coined at the end of the Cold War, it was come into being with the breakdown of bipolarity in Europe. However, there are a few questions to be illuminated such as how can ESDP be defined? Is it all about creating federal Europe with its own proper and strong military power? or getting attached to the back of NATO or USA to defend the Union for external threats? In this chapter the effects of the emergence of the ESDP on NATO-EU Relations will be focused by touching upon the influence of the USA and some EU member states on this process. The theory of realism is taken into consideration to understand the main motivation of the emergence of ESDP and the essence of ESDP-NATO relations.