European Security and Defence Identity

The Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), formerly known as the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), is a major element of the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (EU) and is the domain of EU policy covering defence and military aspects, as well as civilian crisis management. The ESDP was the successor of the European Security and Defence Identity under NATO, but differs in that it falls under the jurisdiction of the European Union itself, including countries with no ties to NATO.

Formally, the Common Security and Defence Policy is the domain of the European Council, which is an EU institution, whereby the heads of member states meet. Nonetheless, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, currently Federica Mogherini, also plays a significant role. As Chairperson of the external relations configuration of the Council, the High Representative prepares and examines decisions to be made before they are brought to the Council.

European security policy has followed several different paths during the 1990s, developing simultaneously within the Western European Union, NATO and the European Union itself.

Earlier efforts were made to have a common European security and defence policy. The 1947 Treaty of Dunkirk between UK and France was a European alliance and mutual assistance agreement after WWII. This agreement was transferred in 1948 to the military Article 4 of the Treaty of Brussels which included the BeNeLux countries. To reach the treaty goals the Western Union Defence Organization was set up 1948 with an allied European command structure under British Field Marshal Montgomery. In 1949 the United States and Canada joined the alliance and its mutual defence agreements through the North Atlantic Treaty with its Article 5 mutual defence clause which differed from the Brussels Treaty as it did not necessarily include military response. In 1950 the European Defence Community (EDC), similar in nature to European Coal and Steel Community, was proposed but failed ratification in the French parliament. The military Western Union Defence Organization was during the 1950–1953 Korean War augmented to become the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of the cold war. The failure to establish the EDC resulted in the 1954 amendment of the Treaty of Brussels at the London and Paris Conferences which in replacement of EDC established the political Western European Union (WEU) out of the earlier established Western Union Defence Organization and included West Germany and Italy in both WEU and NATO as the conference ended the occupation of West Germany and the defence aims had shifted from Germany to the Soviet Union.

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