Not another ‘grand strategy’: what prospects for the future European security strategy?

Abstract:

The article advocates that the current proposals for a new European security strategy aim to a similar or even more ambitious strategy than the original 2003 one, calling in effect for a European ‘grand strategy’ in world affairs. Taking into account the original aims and consequent results of the initial European security strategy and related documents, it argues that the European Union (EU) was not and is still not prepared to undertake a security project of such scope due to severe limitations in terms of structure, capabilities and learning curve, now and in the near future. Rather than insisting with an approach that produced very little, the EU should abandon the traits of a grand strategy in favour of a more realistic and restrained project that could focus on security matters in its neighbourhood including the problematic Russian and Turkish issues while relying on better transatlantic relations and true multilateralism.