European Union and the Weapons of Mass Destruction: Policy, Threat, Response

Kostić, Marina (2021) European Union and the Weapons of Mass Destruction: Policy, Threat, Response. Romanian Review of Political Sciences and International Relations, XVIII (2). pp. 135-155. ISSN 1841-2300

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Abstract

The aim of this article is to explore the European Union’s (EU) attitude toward the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) – shape of nonproliferation policy, perception of the WMD threat and the EU’s responses to it – through the Social Constructivism paradigm of International Relations. In providing the explanation author uses the notions of identity, historical experiences, institutional evolution, and lessons learned, as well as comparative method and content analysis. This paper argues that the EU’s position toward the WMD (policy, threat, responses) is mainly the result of the EU’s evolution and lessons learned in the field of foreign, security and defence policy after the Cold War, as well as its search for the global power identity role which has separate and different security interest from those of the USA and with its own vision of global order based on rules. Historical experiences of the World War II regarding the balance of power in Europe, lessons learned from the use of force without United Nations (UN) mandate in tackling the crisis after the Cold War and conditionality policy mainly used in the process of enlargement, as well as the search for distinct EU identity and associated world order and institutional development are all embedded in the EU non-proliferation policy, perception of the WMD threat and the responses to it. These policy, threat perception and response are also largely defined in terms of functionalism, multilateralism, comprehensiveness and strategic autonomy.

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