The Europeanization of National Foreign Policy : Continuity and Change in European Crisis Management

Eva Gross analyzes changing national preferences towards the EU CFSP and ESDP by providing detailed accounts of British, French and German crisis decision-making in FYROM, Afghanistan, Lebanon and DR Congo. While transatlantic relations remain important, crisis management under the EU label is increasingly accepted in national capitals. With the creation of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) member states can rely on more than one institution when it comes to matters of international security. Britain and France, but also Germany, were instrumental in creating ESDP - but experience has shown that these three EU member states do not automatically consider the EU as an appropriate institutional framework for crisis responses. Under what conditions, then, do EU member states privilege European security institutions in their crisis decision-making? This book analyzes British, French and German decision-making processes in four international crises to delineate transatlantic and European influences that act on policy-makers. Although transatlantic pressures have become less important when it comes to reservation against using the EU as a platform for military crisis management operations, this has not resulted in moves towards more 1Europeanized2 crisis decision-making. Europeanization, therefore, continues to only partially account for national policy choices Front Matter....Pages i-xx The Europeanization of National Foreign Policy?....Pages 1-28 Continuity and Change in European Crisis Management....Pages 29-62 Britain: Balancing European and Transatlantic Commitments....Pages 63-90 France: Exporting National Preferences....Pages 91-121 Germany: From Bystander to Participant....Pages 122-153 From Continuity to Change: an Emerging European Crisis Management Policy?....Pages 154-172 Back Matter....Pages 173-194 Eva Gross analyses changing national preferences towards the EU CFSP and ESDP by providing detailed accounts of British, French and German crisis decision-making in FYROM, Afghanistan, Lebanon and DR Congo