IS A MORE ASSERTIVE EUROPE POSSIBLE THROUGH POOLING AND SHARING INITIATIVES?
IS A MORE ASSERTIVE EUROPE POSSIBLE THROUGH POOLING AND SHARING INITIATIVES?

Author(s): Marko Savković
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, International relations/trade, Security and defense
Published by: BCBP Beogradski centar za bezbednosnu politiku
Keywords: NATO’s Smart Defence; EU’s Pooling and Sharing; European Defence Cooperation
Summary/Abstract: It is hardly rocket science, achieve more by pooling and sharing resources that are already available within many different parts of a complex system. To put it into a perspective, maximum utilization has been one of the mainstays of any production cycle since early days of organised human life. However, for two of the world premier security actors, this presents a daunting paradigm shift. Two ambitious initiatives – NATO’s Smart Defence (SD), and European Union’s Pooling and Sharing (P&S) now face same old issues that have kept European defence cooperation lagging behind other policies for years. Europe’s persistent inability – to live up to its ambitions when it comes to projection of power abroad – has been much lamented before. Strategic “disablers” of EU’s defence are well known. First, policy it is supposed to grow from is not supranational; it is highly dependent on accommodation of diverse and often conflicting national interests. Second, a genuine leap forward in defence capabilities would come at a price exceeding many of members’ abilities, now more than ever.

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