Paper Titles & Abstracts

The EU and NATO have developed their profile as both IOs and global actors. While NATO extended its functional spectrum from conventional territorial defence to 'out of area' operations, the EU built up an operational branch to complement its foreign and security policy. The literature is divided over whether these developments have occurred in reaction to each other or whether the two organizations have simply adapted to new strategic circumstances and operational realities. This paper challenges the popular argument that the relationship between the two organizations is a static and hierarchical one, whereby either of the two dominate or complement the other. Based on an analysis of the EU's and NATO's strategic foundations that goes well beyond the comparison of strategic declarations and documents, the paper draws a comprehensive picture of each organization's strategic raison-d'être in order to determine in which ways the two converge, overlap or complement each other. This examination of strategic designs is then discussed in the context of specific cases of EU and NATO involvement in crises on the Western Balkans and in Africa. This paper argues that the functional ratio between the two organizations is not about directional differences or set task sharing arrangements but that it is changeable and subject to contextual circumstances.