Synopses & Reviews
This new book tackles two key questions: 1) How is the EU functioning as a security actor? 2) How and to what extent is the EU affecting national security identities?
Focusing on the four largest Nordic states (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), this incisive study analyzes how and to what extent the EU affects national security identities. It shows how the EU has developed into a special kind of security actor that, due to its level of political integration, has an important influence on national security approaches and identities.
This new analysis applies a fresh combination of integration theory, security studies and studies of Europeanization. The main argument in this book is that, rather than adapting to the changing conditions created by the end of the Cold War, the Nordic states changed their security approaches in response to the European integration process. It shows how different phases in the post Cold War European integration process have influenced the national security approaches of Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. While all four security approaches seem to have been Europeanized, the speed and the character of these changes seem to vary due to a combination of differing ties to the EU and differing security policy traditions.
This new book will be of great interest to all students of European Defence, national security and of security studies in general.
Synopsis
Provides an understanding of how the EU functions as a security actor and analyses how and to what extent the EU affects national security identities. The empirical focus is a comparison of the processes of change and adaptations in the Nordic countries. The analysis combines integration theory, security studies and studies of Europeanisation.
Synopsis
This book provides an understanding of how the EU functions as a security actor, and how and to what extent the EU affects national security identities.
Since the early 1990s the EU has increasingly become a more important security policy actor. However, the special character of the EU being something between an international organization and a federal state makes it unique. The aim of this book is twofold. First, it provides an understanding of how the EU functions as a security actor. Second, it analyses how and to what extent the EU affects national security identities. The empirical focus is a comparison of the processes of change and adaptations in the Nordic countries. However, the general topic of the book goes beyond the Nordic region. In fact, comparing the Nordic countries is interesting since they have both different relationships to the EU and different security policy traditions.
The analysis combines perspectives in political science and International Relations (IR) that are seldom combined. It combines integration theory, security studies and studies of Europeanization. However, the main theme is to contribute to increase our understanding of how national security identities change. One branch of this literature is concerned with whether changes outside the borders of the nation state impact on and lead to changes and adaptations in these identities. The particular focus of this book relates to this branch. The main argument is that the EU is a security actor and that it, due to its level of integration, influence nation states security approaches and identities.