Mark Webber

The governance of European security

This article seeks to develop a concept of ‘security governance’ in the context of post-Cold War Europe. The validity of a governance approach lies in its ability to locate some of the distinctive ways in which European security has been coordinated, managed and regulated. Based on an examination of the way governance is utilised in other political fields of political analysis, the article identifies the concept of security governance as involving the coordinated management and regulation of issues by multiple and separate authorities, the interventions of both public and private actors (depending upon the issue), formal and informal arrangements, in turn structured by discourse and norms, and purposefully directed toward particular policy outcomes. Three issues are examined to demonstrate the utility of the concept of security governance for understanding security in post-Cold War Europe: the transformation of NATO, the Europeanisation of security accomplished through EU-led initiatives and, finally, the resultant dynamic relationship between forms of exclusion and inclusion in governance.

The Enlargement of Europe

Organizations, Europe and enlargement the enlargement of NATO the enlargement of the European Union the enlargement of the Western European Union the enlargement of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe the enlargement of the Council of Europe.

Security governance in Europe: a return to system

The security governance literature has developed in four waves: the first is dedicated to matters of definition; the second to conceptual debate; the third to matters of application in the European setting and the fourth to how well the concept works in extra-European regions and at the global level. For all this effort, security governance as a concept remains problematic: it still has some way to go before it obtains clear definitional precision, conceptual clarity and a secure standing as concept in Security Studies. We address some of the theoretical and methodological difficulties common to the literature and argue that security governance has become overly preoccupied with agency and has thereby neglected structure. It has, in other words, obtained an actor-centered focus and so tended to conflate security governance as an analytical category with the specific actions of security actors. It has thus moved forward little in its ability to determine how and why security actors behave in the aggregate and whether that behavior reflects wider systemic properties. We thus ask in a third section whether it is worth returning to systemic thinking on security governance especially in the European context where the concept has had its most sophisticated application.

NATO's Triple Challenge

NATOs future is again the subject of speculation and debate despite its having fought a recent and apparently successful war in Kosovo. This article proposes that there are three aspects to this challenge. First, NATO is facing a series of dilemmas in its relations with non-members: how should it manage relations with Russia, and with the applicants for membership? The authors argue that NATO should seek to develop a consolidationist posture. The second challenge is that of developing an EU–NATO partnership in the light of the Helsinki Headline Goals. This, it is proposed, can be developed through a division of labour. The third task, that of military restructuring, is overshadowed by the complexities of processing a working European military structure. In conclusion, the authors suggest that a strategy for the alliance, a key component of the Cold War, but subsequently lost, can be refashioned from the above elements.

Russia and Europe : conflict or cooperation?

List of Tables Preface List of Abbreviations Notes on the Contributors Introduction: Russia and Europe, Conflict or Cooperation? M.Webber The Place of Europe in Russian Foreign Policy M.Bowker Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization C.Kennedy-Pipe Russia and the European Union J.Gower Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe D.Lynch Russia and the Council of Europe M.Webber Russia and Issues of Demilitarization D.Averre Russia and the Former Yugoslavia M.Andersen Conclusion: Russia and Europe, Trajectories of Development M.Webber Index

Italian foreign policy in the post-cold war period: a neoclassical realist approach

Abstract Drawing on a neoclassical realist approach, this article analyses the foreign policy conduct of different Italian governments from 1994 to 2008. Pressured by the post-cold war international system, these governments have been compelled to raise Italys profile within the international system. However, the way in which successive governments have responded has differed markedly. By looking at variables located at the domestic level – elite perceptions of the distribution of power and government instability – it is possible to explain these differences. Neo-classical realism is seen as an advance on Waltzian neo-realism precisely because it allows room for domestic as well as international (or systemic) variables, and because it has a very specific focus on foreign policy as such.

The common European security and defence policy and the ‘third‐country’ issue

The Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP) of the European Union (EU) was launched in 1999 and has been perceived as a landmark step toward European security cooperation, particularly in the field of crisis management. Still in its early stages, some difficult issues have become apparent. Of these, the so‐called ‘third‐country’ issue may prove to be among the most significant. This problem refers to the necessity of associating states outside the EU with CESDP. In this regard, three states stand out — the United States, Turkey and Russia — and this article considers their concerns and the European response in detail. This is prefaced by a general overview of how the third‐country problem emerged and what the EU has done to address it. It concludes by suggesting that third‐country considerations could well determine where and how EU‐led missions operating under the auspices of CESDP are deployed.

Europe after enlargement

1. Introduction: Regional International Society in a Post-Enlargement Europe 2. The Changing Nature of International Institutions in Europe: The Challenge of the European Union 3. NATO: Within and Between European International Society 4. The Council of Europe: The Institutional Limits of Contemporary European International Society? 5. The OSCE: A Pan-European Society in the Making? 6. Russia and Europe: Whose Society? 7. Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine: In or Out of European Regional International Society? 8. Turkey: Identity, Foreign Policy, and Socialization in a Post-Enlargement Europe

Repairing NATO's Motors

NATO moves toward its next summit (to be held in Newport, Wales in September 2014) in a mood of anxiety and uncertainty. This is not simply because telling questions are being asked of the alliance in relation to Afghanistan and Ukraine, but because the twin motors which have sustained NATO now show signs of considerable wear and tear. The first of these motors relates to principles of purpose. This encompasses the activities (or purposes) which NATO has consciously pursued in the last 25 years: namely, operations, enlargement, partnership, transatlanticism and security. The second is principles of function: the means, in other words, by which NATO is kept in motion. Here, American leadership, cohesion and trust, burden-sharing and credibility all matter. These motors are not about to completely break down (NATO has underlying strengths which make that unlikely) but they do need attention. NATOs good health requires it to focus on a series of core tasks�what this article refers to as readiness, reassurance and renewal. These three tasks speak to an agenda of consolidation and preservation, rather than one of task expansion. But this is not a conservative agenda; grasping the nettle of prioritization and focus requires, in itself, a certain foresight and enterprise. Managed successfully, it is an agenda that will preserve and strengthen NATO in what are increasingly troubled times.

NATO: Within and Between European International Society

Abstract NATO’s role in forging European order is undeniable, but the clarity and focus of Alliance purpose has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War. The ramifications of this change are considered via analysis of the trajectory of enlargement and a conceptualisation of the enlarged Alliance based upon English School thinking. Four categories are put forward: these refer to geographic levels of operation, conditionality, legitimacy and great‐power management. The argument which emerges from this treatment is that NATO was and remains an essential component of European regional international society but its centrality has been modified both by developments consequent upon the end of the Cold War and the political fall‐out of the events of 9/11.