During the last ten years, the EU has turned into a forceful actor in the fight against the proliferation of WMD, one of the traditional security challenges on the international agenda. However, when considering from a historical perspective it has hardly been predictable that the EU would turn into Europe’s principal international organisation in the field of non-proliferation. Its member states have been – and remain – divided on major issues related to WMD, in particular nuclear deterrence and nuclear disarmament. In the early 1980s, they were even divided on the issue of non-proliferation itself. This paper will examine why the EU has become so active in the specific field of non-proliferation. It will focus in particular on the convergence of strategic ideas about non-proliferation among key EU member states (France, Germany, UK) over the last thirty years and its implications for European security cooperation.
