ORCID
- Lorenzo Cladi: 0000-0003-3365-7052
Abstract
Over the past few years, European security cooperation has been revived. The EU has launched several defence initiatives and some member states, such as France have launched their own collaborative initiatives. The renewed activism in European security cooperation followed several years of inactivity and warrants theoretical investigation. Hedging is a concept that has been employed to make sense of renewed activism in European security cooperation. By pursuing hedging, Europeans are preparing for a future in which the US might be unwilling or unable to get involved, and to assist with, European security affairs. Advancing a neorealist analysis, this article argues that European states’ efforts to increase cooperation remain consistent with the broader trajectory of European security cooperation since the end of the Cold War. European states remain dependent on the US for their security and are still far from autonomously projecting their influence internationally. This article illustrates the argument with reference to the recent withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan and the French promise to wind down its commitment in the Sahel. The implications of this argument are discussed in detail.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2022-09-25
Publication Title
Defence Studies
Volume
22
Issue
4
ISSN
1470-2436
Acceptance Date
2022-08-03
Deposit Date
2022-10-31
Embargo Period
2022-11-01
Funding
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Keywords
European security, Realism, Bandwagoning
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
First Page
624
Last Page
643
Recommended Citation
Cladi, L. (2022) 'Persevering with bandwagoning, not hedging: why European security cooperation still conforms to realism', Defence Studies, 22(4), pp. 624-643. Available at: 10.1080/14702436.2022.2110476
