One Step Back, Two Steps Ahead

Revisiting the ESS: Towards the EU as a Regional Player

Abstract

By analyzing the European Security Strategy (ESS) this paper identifies five underlying key tensions which evolve around the questions: what are the threats the EU is facing, how (if at all) will it use force to counter these threats, what precisely are the objectives and interests Brussels seeks to achieve and defend and what capabilities does the EU need for these ends, how will it structure its interaction with the US/NATO, and what is the realm – the geographical scope – of the EU‘s security ambitions? The paper is well aware of the interlinkage of these questions but chooses geography as a starting point of analysis.