"The U.S. presence within the EU's common foreign and security policy system: The relevance of neo-realism and of the security community concept"

Gegout, Catherine. (2003) "The U.S. presence within the EU's common foreign and security policy system: The relevance of neo-realism and of the security community concept" . In European Union Studies Association (EUSA) > Biennial Conference > 2003 (8th), March 27-29, 2003, pages 31, Nashville, TN.

Abstract

The EU's foreign policy is currently facing major changes; firstly, the Amsterdam Treaty has provided visibility and analysis capacity with the creation of both the post of the High Representative and of the Policy Unit. Secondly, the member states have also decided to give the EU a military capability name the European Rapid Reaction Force and an institutional structure with a Political and Security Committee, military staff and a military committee. Finally, the EU succeeded in adopting a common view on its policy towards the Balkans. What are the reasons for these changes? I argue that the main reason for these changes is the position of the U.S. on both EU foreign policy and on U.S. foreign policy (in this case, the EU member states react to the U.S. foreign policy). What can we say about the impact of transatlantic relations on the CFSP? The air of this paper is to evaluate how and under which conditions the U.S influences a change in a member state's position to reach a common EU agreement in the CFSP field when highly sensitive issues are at stake. When the U.S. influences a state's position, this means the state can change position, either to agree or to disagree with the U.S.