A convenient framework: the Western European Union in the Persian Gulf, 1987–1988 and 1990–1991

Abstract: One important discussion about European security focuses on what types of institutions will enable Europe to effectively intervene in regional crises. Thus far, the consensus has been that a European Security and Defense Policy should possess, for its military component, a highly institutionalized and integrative inter-governmental structure. Ironically, Europe's greatest collective foreign military successes were obtained under the organizational auspices of the Western European Union (WEU), whose ill-defined mandate and weak institutional structures contrast markedly from current policy prescriptions. In two campaigns, the WEU coordinated efforts to protect maritime commerce and swept sea lanes for naval mines during the Iran-Iraq War (1987-1988), enforced the United Nations embargo of Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf Crisis, and cleared the naval mines left behind after the 1991 Gulf War. The lesson to be drawn from these successful interventions is that Europe profited from a structure capable of limiting the political and diplomatic costs of intervening abroad and not, as is often assumed, an organization designed to maximize military efficiency.