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NATO's Challenge: Exploring the Persistence of the Alliance's Military Capabilities Gap
Schwarzenberg, Carly Eileen ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
This thesis addresses the military capabilities gap between the US and European member states of NATO. It seeks to answer the question, why does the US-European capabilities gap persist despite apparent agreement between Allies on strategic capabilities objectives and cooperative solutions? The paper first establishes the need for a strong, independent European Security and Defense Identity within the Alliance, particularly since NATO's operations in Libya. It then defines and explicates the military capabilities gap within the Alliance, including its scope, history, and attempts to find cooperative solutions. This analysis demonstrates that there is broad agreement both on what the Alliance requires for military capabilities and for how best to obtain them (cooperatively), yet the gap has persisted and grown for two decades. In an attempt to solve this empirical puzzle, the paper employs a two-level games framework to analyze the NATO defense planning process, which links supranational capabilities planning for the Alliance to national-level execution, dependent upon funding from state parliaments. Faced with the general answer that fiscal constraints preclude states from following through on their commitments, the paper delves deeper to determine factors that may influence differences in defense...
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NATO's Challenge: Exploring the Persistence of the Alliance's Military Capabilities Gap
Schwarzenberg, Carly Eileen ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
This thesis addresses the military capabilities gap between the US and European member states of NATO. It seeks to answer the question, why does the US-European capabilities gap persist despite apparent agreement between Allies on strategic capabilities objectives and cooperative solutions? The paper first establishes the need for a strong, independent European Security and Defense Identity within the Alliance, particularly since NATO's operations in Libya. It then defines and explicates the military capabilities gap within the Alliance, including its scope, history, and attempts to find cooperative solutions. This analysis demonstrates that there is broad agreement both on what the Alliance requires for military capabilities and for how best to obtain them (cooperatively), yet the gap has persisted and grown for two decades. In an attempt to solve this empirical puzzle, the paper employs a two-level games framework to analyze the NATO defense planning process, which links supranational capabilities planning for the Alliance to national-level execution, dependent upon funding from state parliaments. Faced with the general answer that fiscal constraints preclude states from following through on their commitments, the paper delves deeper to determine factors that may influence differences in defense...
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Logic of the Single European Army
Kozelka, Josef ; Sršeň, Radim (advisor) ; Dubský, Zbyněk (referee)
The current economic crisis has led the leaders of the European states to decrease their spending on defense. This paper argues that if this reduction in public spending is not offset by the increase in international cooperation than the military capability of the region is going to deteriorate in the near future. The argument that the defense budgets are decreasing is based on the analysis of the data available for the public defense expenditures. Further six case studies of EU states are presented showing that the potential decrease in capability is observable in a wide range of EU countries. The case for greater international cooperation is based on the economic theory of comparative advantage and benefits of competition in the defense market. Furthermore, academic literature supporting this hypothesis is also presented to the reader throughout the paper. The conclusion of this paper is that the current tendency of governmental politicians of EU countries to ignore the need for greater international cooperation in the defense sector is unsustainable and that if European Union wants to maintain its position as one of the world power blocks, systematic reform of the EU defense market will need to be introduced.
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