European security, strategic culture, and the use of force

Abstract:

This article examines post-cold war European attitudes to the use of force, focusing on the UK, France, Germany and Poland. It argues that European strategic culture reflects the security environment of the second half of the twentieth century, and increasingly acts as an impediment to developing new European security strategies relevant to the early twenty-first century. The author argues that new thinking about security and strategy is required in Europe, and suggests six principles that should inform a revised European security strategy appropriate to the post-9/11 world.

• Primary Source