The Emerging Trend Toward “Alliance”: New Changes in EU-NATO Relations Under Strategic Autonomy

The European Union’s foreign and security policy has come into being and developed in the process of European integration. It’s influenced by both internal and external factors. After the international financial crisis in 2008, the return of major country competition coupled with the EU’s internal challenges has pushed the EU to adjust and reform its foreign and security policy. A Global Strategy for EU Foreign and Security Policy, released in 2016, advocates “European strategic autonomy” and reshapes the EU foreign and security policy at the level of concepts, capacity building and operation. In recent years, along with the geopolitical shift in EU power, its foreign and security policy has shown new features such as the orientation to major country competition and the strengthening of EU-US and EU-NATO cooperation.

Strategic Autonomy Reshapes EU Foreign and Security Policy

The nature of European integration is European countries’ joint efforts for self-reliance through the implementation of economic and political integration, its ultimate goal being the unification of Europe. However, during the Cold War, European integration was difficult to develop in an independent manner due to its security dependence on the United States. The US demanded that Western Europe submit to the leadership of the US on security and defense policy and act under the framework of the NATO alliance in order to meet the needs of its own security strategy. Although Western European countries and the European Community recognize the status of the US and NATO, they have not given up the pursuit of geopolitical goals and self-interest. On the one hand, they hoped to ensure that the will of Europe could be reflected in NATO affairs through the pluralistic links and coordination mechanism with the US under the framework of the transatlantic alliance. On the other hand, they tried to promote the process of economic and political integration in Europe in order to reduce dependence on the US, and thus restore Europe’s international status. So European integration has geopolitical attributes from the outset while strategic autonomy is embedded and gradually developed in the integration.

During the Cold War, member states of the European Community made many attempts to carry out foreign affairs and defense cooperation, and in 1970 established a system for foreign policy coordination among member states, but it was difficult to make progress in defense cooperation. The main reason is that Britain, France and Germany have their own strategic considerations in the European defense and the relationship between Europe and the United States: Britain relied on the “special relationship between Britain and the United States,” hoping to build a Western system through the United States to ensure their own market superiority and the ability to project maritime power globally; France believed that NATO is the transmission belt of the US hegemony, and firmly pursue strategic autonomy, hoping to establish a pan-Europe security architecture exclusive of the US; West Germany joined NATO to become the US “new favorites”, so was deeply bound to the NATO military command structure and combat readiness resources. In short, the irreconcilable national interests and policy differences limit European defense cooperation, coupled with the rather strong dependence on the United States and NATO, it was difficult for the European Community to form an independent foreign and security policy.

The conclusion of the Cold War and the development of European integration provided the necessary conditions for the EU to construct a foreign and security policy.The Maastricht Treaty, signed in early 1992, formalized the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). At the same time, the EU believed that in order to play an important role in the world, it had to establish some form of security and defense policy, and even to have a military force. In 1999, the EU established the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), and proposed to develop a military force under the framework of the ESDP. At the end of the year 2000, the EU took over the functions of the Western European Union (WEU), and made the latter its “defense force”. The Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force in December 2009, formalized the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), providing the EU with the legitimacy and capacity to form and develop strategic autonomy and a strategic culture. At the same time, the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) mechanism was introduced so as to enable the EU to project power and influence in normative areas and coercion. The establishment and development of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) has challenged the dominance of the United States and NATO in the transatlantic alliance. Although the United States agrees that the European Union should strengthen its own defence capabilities within the framework of NATO, it has made clear its “three nos” policy, namely, European Union’s no separation from, no replacement of and no discrimination against NATO, with the aim of maintaining NATO’s core position in European security.

After the 2008 international financial crisis, the world’s geopolitical landscape changes accelerated. The European strategic community started the discussion on the renewal of the EU’s foreign and security strategy and the voice for the EU to realize the “strategic awakening” was growing. In 2016, the EU officially released “Global Strategy for EU Foreign and Security Policy”, which puts the EU’s own security at the top of the list of new security strategy objectives, emphasizes the realization of security strategy objectives by enhancing its own hard power, and at the same time emphasizes the strengthening of the US-European transatlantic alliance, with a particular focus on NATO. For the first time, the file introduces the concept of “strategic autonomy,” which it defines as “the ability to set one’s own priorities and make one’s own decisions on foreign policy and security issues” and the institutional, political and material resources needed to implement them in cooperation with third parties or on one’s own if needed.