Firstly, the relationship between the EU and the NATO, notably their cooperation and coordination is an essential factor affecting the EU consensus associated with military force. The NATO's new Strategic Concept states that ‘an active and effective European Union contributes to the overall security of the Euro-Atlantic area. Therefore, the EU is a unique and essential partner for NATO.’ The NATO and the EU have 21 members in common. But all of them have only one set of military forces and capabilities. ‘The EU cannot deploy military forces if NATO is already engaged as all troops that are anticipated to be allotted to the EU force would already be assigned to the NATO.’ That is to say, the EU military force is only being ‘double hatted’ for NATO although the EU repeatedly insists that they are not developing another copy of the NATO. Since a common defence military force could only be deployed when NATO is not engaged, ‘the EU may be unable to respond to certain crisis situations that threaten the security of its Member States because its troops are already committed to NATO.’ The EU military force have to use NATO capabilities and intelligence at this stage as the EU has a much leaner military and political staff than NATO. However, if the EU desires to have the military capability with less dependency on the US, it should enhance autonomous military capabilities and intelligence without assistance from the NATO. It does not mean cooperation between them is unnecessary. By cooperating, pooling their resources, opting for multinational solutions and specializing, NATO and the EU can improve their chances of acquiring the military capabilities they need for their operations. Secondly, the US attitude towards the construction o... ... middle of paper ... ...l of International & Comparative Law, Feb 01, 2003; Vol. 31, No. 2, p. 355-384< http://library.ucd.ie:50080/ebsco-w-a/ehost/detail?sid=1b4da043-249c-4912-9950-03a4155cb2aa%40sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4204&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ofm&AN=502510677> access 14 April 2014. 10. Philip H. Gordon, ‘Their own army? Making European defence work’, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2000, Vol. 79, Issue 4 access 14 April 2014. 11. Vedran Obucina, ‘As the EU struggles to reach a consensus on foreign policy, France takes the lead’, The Atlantic Post, January 2, 2014. access 14 April 2014.
The author doesn’t forget to mention the relationship between USA and NATO. He thinks that Americans welcome NATO as a weapon for America’s affairs, not of the world’s. In his final words, it is suggested that either Europe should invite USA to leave NATO or Europe should expel America from it.
The United Nations and NATO are two organizations in this world that are working extremely hard to accomplish their goals, one step at a time. Maybe someday, the world will be a peaceful place and well have the United Nations and The North Atlantic Organization to thank for it.
Ifezue G. Rajabali M., ‘Protecting the interests of the child’ [2013] Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law 1: 77–85
H W R Wade ‘The Basis of Legal Sovereignty’ (1995) 172 Cambridge Law Journal 186.
7 Smith, Karen E., European Union Foreign Policy in a Changing World, 2003, p. 171-176.
Although Rosecrance makes valid arguments, I will focus on his second, which has a major flaw. Should the United States and Europe (and eventually China and ‘non-western’ nations) form economic an alliance, there would be no need for competition. With no competition, there is no threat and ultimately, the use for naval power becomes futile. Hence, militaristic organizations such as NATO will cease to exist.
Over the years the endurance of NATO has led to closer ties among its members and to a growing community of interests. The treaty itself has provided a model for other collective security agreements. NATO activities are no longer small only to Europe. In
...: Reassessing Legitimacy in the European Union. Journal of Common Market Studies, 40 (4), pp. 603-24.
The EU is a union of sovereign European states who share sovereignty based on treaty. The union also possesses competences in policy sectors with exclusive jurisdiction in the area of Economic and Monetary Union while others are shared with Member States (MS), the other powers belong to MS as derived from the conferral of powers art 5(2) TEU, 2(1) TFEU art.3 & 4 TFEU additionally other powers have been offered by the decisions of the European Court for direct effect on citizens
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4 1949. The fundamental goal of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. NATO links North America and Europe by providing a forum in which the United States, Canada and European countries can consult together on security issues of common concern and take joint action in addressing them.
Europe has been militarily weak since World War II, but it remained unnoticed because of the unique geopolitical context of the Cold War: it was the strategic pivot between the United States and the Soviet Union. With the "new Europe", in 1990s, everybody agreed that Europe will rest...
NATO is an intergovernmental military alliance between the two continents of Europe and America which is formed to safeguard the peace and security developing a link among t...
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 as a means of collective security for the West to defend against the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO seemed to have lost a main reason for existing. As former Eastern Bloc nations expressed interest in participating in NATO operations or even joining, Russia became steadily uneasy. When evaluating their response to NATO expansion in the 1990’s, did Russia act in an offensive or defensive manner? J.L. Black presents a plethora of primary accounts of the years encompassing NATO expansion to give the reader an idea exactly what the Russian government was thinking at the time. It seems clear that NATO expansion caused Russia to act in a defensive manner in order to protect its own strategic interests. By looking at a history of Russia, Black highlights that the Russians have always faced the problem of being enclosed by the West. This is what caused Russia to reach out to “fringe” nations for collective security support. Black also shows how during the Kosovo Crisis, NATO overstepped their bounds in terms of to what extent they could solve the problem. Lastly, NATO expansion was the cause of increased Russian military spending in the last 1990’s.
When there is a conflict, alliance is needed to confront one’s enemy. That is the US-USSR confrontation would need alliances of the 2 blocs. But if one wants to solve a conflict and ease tension, international cooperation is needed to have conversation and a balance of power. That is the integration of the Europe as EU as a third power to counterbalance and maintain peace. All in all, the confrontation between the US and USSR during the Cold War brought about international conflicts for sure, but it did promote international cooperation at the same time.
North Atlantic treaty Organization , "NATO-Eu: a Strategic Partnership." Last modified October 29 , 2012. Accessed November 24, 2013. http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_49217.htm.