Security Culture, Strategic Approach and the Implementation and Operationalization of European Security

The inclusion on the European Security Strategy (ESS) document of the term ‘strategy’ set off an intense debate, whether or not the EU had, shared or is required to have a common strategic approach to international affairs. The article reviews the traditional and current debates about strategic culture, assessing the utility of the concept in the context of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) implementation and operationalization. The notion of strategic culture is frequently used with reference to states’ defence policies and formal military alliances being focused on threat perceptions and on the conditions of military supremacy. These premises fit poorly to European security goals, policy practices and choice of security instruments, for which a distinction between security culture and strategic approach is introduced and related with the processes of implementation and operationalization of CSDP. This enables to assess how the principles that inform the EU’s security culture and the transformation of principles into security policy instruments may set the conditions for a more efficient EU’s strategic approach to international security.