POLITICS VERSUS POLITICAL ECONOMY IN EUROPEAN DEFENCE
A CONSTRUCTIVIST CRITIQUE OF TRANSNATIONAL LIBERALISM
Silviu PETRE
National University of Political and Administrative Studies, Bucharest
Tel: 0040-0318.08.97, E-mail: silviugeopolitic@yahoo.com
Abstract
European defence policies reflect the overall double posture of European Union: between unitary actorness and being a broker of different national interests. Drafted in a period of more than a decade, in the aftermath of Kossovo NATO campaign, those policies are not followed by the subsequent level of transborder mergers and acquisitions between military manufacturers. As security industry is sill affected by financial crisis, budget reductions and growing costs of hardware, the European defence capability finds itself at a crossroad between neoliberal communitarian measures and national protectionist restrictions.
Such case invites a fertile critique of institutional liberalism from a constructivist point of view in International Relations literature. The red thread of the study aims to show that like minded values and economic interdependence does not abolish differences of interest generated by national cultures.
Keywords: European Union, defence policies, institutional liberalism, constructivism