The Europeanisation of British Security Policy

This paper considers the impact of British membership of the European Union (EU) on the development of an EU security policy through the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), and on the security policy-making of the British state. It does this through utilising a framework of Europeanisation, whereby policy is both uploaded from the national level to the EU level, and reciprocally downloaded from the EU level to the national level. I argue that this has played a role in shaping British approaches to security policy, whilst ensuring that the CSDP has been clearly positioned to support, rather than supplant, NATO as the premier security organisation in Europe.