The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP): Onwards into…. what?

In 2020 when Angela Merkel stated that “Internationally the tone of voice is raw at the moment”, and a very senior Danish diplomate summarised the situation in the international system in late autumn 2021 like this: “The US steps back, China steps up and Russia steps on anyone”. In early winter 2021 crisis meetings were held between the presidents of China and the USA over Taiwan, and between the presidents of Russia and the USA over Ukraine, both meetings to prevent escalation and violence. Within the realist school Gilpin (1981), Waltz (1979) and Ripsman et al. (2016) all tell that it is in times where the relative distribution of capabilities between states are changing, that conflicts and wars are happening. This is the international environment the European Union (EU) must navigate in. Various European leaders have commented on EU’s role as international actor, including the defence aspect. Germany’s former Chancellor Merkel commented in 2017 when she expressed that Europe must take her destiny in her own hands as one could not any longer trust ones olde allies [read: the USA] 100% as providers of security anymore. In the agreement leading to the new German government a convention to change the EU treaties was proposed, to create a decentralized federation including defence. However, not all other member states would go this fare, on the contrary. This section aims at contributing to empirical and theoretical analysis of the CSDP; it’s past, the present and perhaps educated guesses on it’s future. Panels are invited on for instance: the frame i.e. the International System or parts of it; the CSDP ‘itself’ (perhaps addressing concepts like integration, Europeanization, Brusselisation, organisation and history); individual or groups of member states’ approach to the CSDP; and illustrative cases (e.g. Ukraine, Russia, and the EU; EU and NATO; systemic rivals like China). Chair: Søren Dosenrode, Aalborg University Co-chair: Sevasti Chatzopoulou, Roskilde University