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Ladzik, Jeannette (2012) Britain, Germany and the European Security and Defence Policy: constructivist socialisation at work? Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
This thesis investigates the European Security and Defence Policy (ESOP) which has evolved rapidly since its establishment at the Cologne European Council in June 1999. Its development has been driven by the three biggest EU member states - Germany, France and the UK. While this is to some extent not surprising as these three states are also the most militarily powerful ones in Europe, they had for many years opposing views on the creation of a separate European defence initiative. During the 1990s due to a number of reasons German and British policymakers' views on this topic converged with that of French policy-makers, who had always argued for the establishment of a common European defence policy. The British Prime Minister and the French President were therefore able to launch the European defence project at their historic meeting in Saint Malo. A few months later, Germany presided over the important Cologne European Council. Following the creation of ESOP, German and British policy-makers went beyond mere support and actively drove it forward. This thesis will explore why they changed their behaviour from opposing a common European defence policy towards pressing ahead with it. It proposes the answer that these policy-makers became socialised in ESOP by the EU. Successful socialisation led to the complete internalisation of ESOP norms and the adoption of the EU's interests and identity by German and British policy-makers. This hypothesis will be tested by applying Jeffrey T. Checkers constructivist socialisation approach to the case studies of German and British policy-makers, who shaped ESOP from the Saint Malo meeting (3 and 4 December 1998) to the Lisbon European Council summit (18-19 October 2007)
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