Explaining the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy: Theory in Action
The study of the EU’s security and defense policy has until now lacked a comprehensive yet thorough and accessible volume on theoretical debates in the field. This timely volume addresses this and is an engaging assessment of the discussions about the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. It brings together leading scholars in the field who present their respective theoretical viewpoints and illustrate how each has informed their empirical explorations. Pluralistic in its approach, the volume emphasizes the role of conceptual diversity for better explaining the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. It is a broad-range, up-to-date survey that speaks to many of the theoretical debates in the field, including mainstream (neorealism, liberal institutionalism and strategic studies, sociological institutionalism), less mainstream (consistent constructivism and structural constructivism) and critical, inspired by neomarxism, Foucauldian approaches and the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu.
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Review
This is a long overdue and most welcome injection of serious theoretical perspectives into the academic discussion of CSDP, a policy area which fits uneasily into mainstream theories of either international relations or European integration. This rising generation of scholars offers a variety of penetrating insights from neo-realism to post-structuralism, with a heavy emphasis on constructivism. The book breaks significant new theoretical ground and will prove invaluable to all serious scholars of European security and defence.
Jolyon Howorth, visiting professor of political science at Yale; Jean Monnet Professor of European Politics ad personam; and emeritus professor of European studies at the University of Bath.
