Explaining the Member States’ Varying Military Engagements: the Potential of a Strategic Culture Perspective

The JCER is an open-access journal published by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) in association with the UACES Student Forum.

The JCER invites submissions from scholars who are experts in any subject area delivering analysis that relates to Europe. This includes, but is not limited to, Politics/International Relations, Area Studies, European Integration, Economics, Law, History, Culture and Learning & Teaching. The journal publishes the work of established academics alongside that of PhD students and early career researchers.Abstract:

An increasing number of studies examines the security and defence policies of the EU and its member states from a strategic culture perspective. This scholarship has been predominately occupied with examining whether the EU is developing its own strategic culture, mapping the differences between the strategic cultures of the member states and assessing whether these are converging into a common European strategic culture.

This commentary reviews the main conclusions of this research with the goal of exploring the potential of theories on strategic culture for explaining the variation in the member states’ military engagements. It concludes by arguing that increased scholarly attention to the link between the member states’ strategic cultures and their military engagements would provide valuable insights into the prospects and pitfalls of increased European cooperation in security and defence.