This project, consisting of four closely related subprojects, focuses on the institutional and philosophical basis for European integration in the political and security field. Each of the two major European security institutions – NATO and the EU/WEU – expresses a different concept of Europe and a different philosophy of security. The coexistence of the two poses confusing challenges and multiple policy options for all European states – members, aspirants and hold-outs alike. It also offers a possibility to explore the relationship between organization form and political substance at the European level.
The project’s objectives are to analyse the two institutions as instruments for European unification and vehicles for security, to consider the challenges their coexistence poses, and thus to throw light on central long-term developments in European political integration.
Programme Leader Ola Tunander focuses on ‘NATO–Europe’ (as opposed to ‘EU–Europe’), NATO as an informal community, and European identity as Western identity. Senior Researcher Peter Burgess is still connected to the European University Institute in Florence and will continue his subproject ‘The EU – Identity and Construction’ on a 20% basis. Junior Researcher Pinar Tank is responsible for the subproject ‘NATO and the EU in the Eastern Mediterranean’ on a 50% basis. In the remainder of the time she is working on similar issues for the PRIO Eastern Mediterranean project, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Junior Researcher Marianne Takle is working on a closely related project on ‘NATO and the EU in the Baltic States’, financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.
This project started in the autumn of 1998 and has also received financing from the Norwegian Research Council for 1999 and 2000. In 1999 the project has resulted in a couple of articles and book chapters. An edited report will appear in year 2000 and a number of articles are planned for submission to international journals.
