The WEU, What Potential to Replace NATO?
Abstract
The Western European Union (WEU) has today the legal and political basis necessary to develop the institutional capability to eventually replace NATO as the European regional security organization. There is currently a debate on what form post cold war European security arrangements will take. There are countervailing forces of, on the one hand, ever increasing domestic pressure in NATO member states to curb defense spending. These forces are balanced by a perceived need by all the nations of the region to sustain the security and stability that has been afforded by that same organization the past half century. The need to create a viable security arrangement for the new Europe is generating changes in both the institutions capable of providing the necessary military power, NATO and the new European Community and its defense arm, the WEU. NATO has recently redefined its strategic concept. The new concept attempts to accommodate fewer armed forces by creating more political for a capable of creating a secure, stable environment. The EC has also committed its membership to a political union. As this union matures, it will require a common foreign and security policy. This would entail a commitment to develop a European only security identity. The WEU is the most obvious institution capable of evolving into a force projecting organization capable of protecting European interests.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 15, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA252278
Entities
People
- John M. Hutchison
Organizations
- United States Army War College