Kennedy’s ‘Two Pillars’ Revisited: Does the ESDP Make the EU and the USA Equal Partners in NATO?

Abstract: This essay takes President John F. Kennedy’s visionary ‘Declaration of Interdependence’ of 1962, in which he called for a concrete transatlantic partnership on equal footing as the benchmark to assess today’s relationship between the USA and the European Union in defence matters. The central question is: can the European Union with its emerging security and defence policy be seen as one of the two supporting pillars of NATO next to the USA? To this end, the general security strategies, the institutional frameworks and capabilities, as well as the defence industries of both sides are compared. The result is that, although the strategies and initiatives taken by the EU point towards a more equitable partnership, the current state of capabilities and defence industries make it impossible to conclude that NATO rests on two equal pillars. Nevertheless, in view of the history of European integration and in anticipation of the fresh impetus to be given by the Obama administration, the author closes by suggesting a less static image of the transatlantic partnership, namely that of an ever-changing, yet ever-closer partnership.