Od soft power do smart power. Francusko-niemieckie wizje unijnej integracji militarnej i ich krytyka
From soft power to smart power. French and German visions of EU military integration and their criticism

Summary/Abstract: The research problem presented in the article is an analysis of the proposals of France and Germany from 2015 to 2018 in the context of deepening military integration in Europe. The European Union, as an organization based on dialogue and international cooperation, has so far been defined in the political space through the prism of „soft” capabilities to influence the international environment. New threats and security challenges strengthened the conviction of the states’ and EU authorities about the need to deepen cooperation in the field of defense and to develop a new approach in the context of defining the tools of EU foreign policy. The aim of article is to explain to what extent French and German proposals contribute to the European Union becoming a smart power actor and in what direction the CSDP is developing. The hypothesis is based on the assumption that both France and Germany, forming the European „tandem”, as well as the European Commission, are taking measures to do away with the image of the Union as a soft power actor through a gradual communitarisation of the defense policy and the creation of a European Defense Union, equipped with autonomous armed forces. The consequence of these initiatives is to provide the EU with „hard” (military) capabilities to exert political influence, which are important in the implementation of the smart power concept. The main research method used in the article is the analysis of official documents of EU institutions and governmental institutions of France and Germany in the field of security and defense, as well as intergovernmental letters of intent, containing the assumptions of new cooperation initiatives. The comparative method was applied at the level of analyzing the approach of the German and French authorities to the issue of deepening military integration.

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