‘European Army’ Coming to the Fore: Defence Integration in Political Discourse

‘An increasingly unstable neighbourhood, a changing geopolitical environment and shrinking national defence budgets’ lead, in words of the EPSC Strategic Note from June 2015, to the inevitable conclusion: ‘…increased defence integration is our best - and only – option’. This goes in line with the push of Commission President Juncker and the German government to bring the Permanent Structured Cooperation in defence and the ultimate vision of European Army on the agenda. Hitherto, however, these visions have been discursively kept out of serious discussions. This paper aims to examine conditions under which the defence integration is seen as a relevant option. In particular, the analysis will compare a) the systemic/strategic level (character of threats, transatlantic relations), and b) the state level (changing position of defence in national politics). It is hypothesised that the defence integration may turn relevant and plausible as a result of the transformation of the nation-state (Bickerton, 2011), moving defence from high to low/normal politics (Ojanen, 2006), or denationalisation of defence (Matlary & Østerud, 2007). This paper will proceed through comparative analyses of two country-cases, Germany and the UK, and two historical cases (CSDP/PESCO and EDC).