A historical institutionalist analysis of the Security and Defence Policy of the European Union

This dissertation pursues an analytical examination of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) of the European Union (EU) through historical institutionalist lenses. The central argument of this dissertation is that the EU, by launching the ESDP, has entered a path towards becoming a sizeable military and defence actor in the international system. In brief, the EU has locked-itself-in military and defence integration. The central argument is developed by using historical institutionalist concepts (path dependency, unintended consequences, increasing returns, lock-in) as the basic tools for analysing the ESDP. In particular, the EU has established permanent political and military structures which might prove very difficult to overturn in the future. Moreover, the formation of the European Defence Agency is a key development, and it is steadily becoming a very influential tool for defence integration of the EU Member States. Finally, the continuing engagement of
the EU in military and civilian operations has created the unanticipated consequence of increased expectations, which impel increased capabilities. Nevertheless, it is also stressed that a historical institutionalist analysis of the ESDP suffers from the failure of Historical Institutionalism to explain policy change, and its unsuitability for solving the inherent complexity of the relationship between the EU, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the United States of America.