Changed Security Environment and Armaments Cooperation in the European Union

Shabu, Martin

With the end of the Cold War there was a widely shared view amongst scholars in Europe as well as in the USA to the effect that the victory of western style democracies was overwhelming and lasting. However, developments in the Balkan region in the last decade of the twentieth century tragically showed the significance of such an illusion. The question of capabilities came on the scene with the NATO bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo conflict. Over ninety-five percent of the bombs fired were from planes of the Unites States.1Once again Europeans were unable to deal with conflicts on their territory. This time it was even worse. The European Union was depicted as not only a political but also a military dwarf. The launching of the European Security and Defence Policy project in 1998 was a step towards independent European forces being able to cope with low-intensity conflicts without the help of the US. But European soldiers need weapons which are designed to combat the military challenges of the 21st century. This is hard to achieve in a situation where almost all European defence budgets are steadily decreasing. It is clear that European taxpayers are simply not prepared to pay the costs of their security. At this point, defence ministers had to count with less support which required more effective use of...

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