The EU, Security and Transatlantic Relations

This book examines transatlantic security relations in recent years. The end of the Cold War in the late 1980s brought a change in these relations, but they remain important for Europe’s security. Despite efforts to develop a European security policy within the European Union, the continent still largely depends on the United States for its security, as demonstrated by the NATO involvement to deal with the civil wars in Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s. The lessons from those conflicts had the EU move towards an autonomous defence policy from 1999 and the Lisbon Treaty has recently strengthened what is now called the Common European Defence Policy (CEDP). But this policy is still geared towards ‘soft security’ missions of conflict resolution, peace-making and peace creation. When it comes to more traditional security operations requiring heavy military involvement, European countries depend on US hardware and software, as we saw in Libya during the Arab Spring. Equally, in the fight against terrorism, transatlantic cooperation is also very important. This book considers all these issues and presents a strong analysis of the future of transatlantic security relations from the perspective of the EU.

Finn Laursen holds the Canada Research Chair in EU Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, where he directs the EU Centre of Excellence. In 2008 he was also appointed to an ad personam Jean Monnet Chair. His previous positions include professorships at the European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht, and at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense.

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