Catalina

I fear that  institutionalizing a European common defense policy will encourage other international institutions such as the League of Arab States to institutionalize an Islamic common defense policy. Such moves encourage a clash of civilizations predicted by Samuel Huntington. Refugee crises correlate with warfare involving innocent civilians, who must flee their homelands or suffer unimaginable atrocities. A hardened European defense policy, based on a fear of terrorist acts by immigrants would exacerbate the current refugee crisis.

I would say that the possibility of enacting a common foreign policy for the EU in this era of globalization is a conundrum. The main reason is that the attentive situation in the EU has been triggered not only by the current refugee crisis but also by the earlier financial crises that virtually could have turned  the EU into parts. After all, the contemporary economic globalization has weakened the existence of nation state and to some extent, the welfare states. In addition, some EU countries need these refugees for political economic reasons. For example, Germany needs these people as resources for their labor force to stay a top economic country in the EU even though other EU countries reject them.

Clash of  civilizations Samuel Huntington predicted is inevitable in the age of post modernity. The Taliban insurgency,Yugoslavia warfare, and 9/11 attacks, among others, illustrate the clashes. So, my standpoint is that it is time that law and order in the EU and around the globe be based on deliberative democracy in which when there is a social problem, it is not the atrocities or partial policy but the reason that is decisive. This is the common framework that the EU common foreign and security policy needs to adopt. Human beings are like animals. When their needs are met, their behaviors can be controlled. Terrorist acts supposedly result from the negligence of human needs.   

Major countries within the EU have different perceptions of the current threats affecting the region because they can respond more strongly than the small countries.

Countries more closed to the Middle East region see refugee's problems different than others located more to the West or the North of the European region. Countries closed to Russian borders see Russian threats differently than those located in the western part of the region. The existence of NATO does not encourage certain European countries to adopt a security policy and a military and security European forces.

With this situation, the adoption of a common foreign and security policy is something very difficult to become a reality at least during the coming decades, particularly if the EU cannot change its own structure and political and security organs.

A Common European foreign policy may be conceivable vis-a-vis the USA and China but it will be extremely difficult - as was shown in the Balkans, the Middle East/Persian Gulf, and Africa. It is a reality that the EU states have yet to confront directly.

Jorge has raised important issues. I fear that the difficulties associated with immigration policies may foster surges of nationalism in many European countries,  which could promote disunity among the countries of Europe.

Hi all,

The EU is currently facing the BREXIT poll at the end of June 2016 in the United Kingdom. The result will change many ideas in the current European Union (in either outcome).

Currently there does not seem to be one unifying idea or theme of a common european identity or common policy. The refugee crisis has shown that there are too many countries that are solely looking in their own direction but not in the common or EU (overall and common house) direction...

There is a real threat that the UK will leave the EU.

The EU will survive but there is a strong requirement to rethink everythng.

Many member states are looking only in their own direction and are seeking their benefits but do not help the overall Union...

Here, we should take in our consideration that is the UK will take this decision since it felt there are a lot of requirements can not fulfil them, some of these requirements defence policy, security agenda and the most crucial is the economy situation, for instance, it will not accept to associate its economy with weary Greece economy. So in my simple opinion, I think the UK will not stay more in the EU and the poll is just a propaganda. 

Being in the UK I am baffled at the need for a poll. As the previous poster said, it is propaganda and political shenanigans. Sadly, we the people lose out to the machinations and ego of a few.

Another reason for an EU defence compact may be to try and make NATO redundant. Having the US inextricably involved with European security is not great. Especially if Trump becomes the president. He is a contemptuous and uneducated arse, IMHO.

The first level of analysis: the current dynamics of international relations illustrate

huge debates  in security studies, that mean,  there is a consensus between the researchers about revision of  the fundaments of  foreign policies field .will a  need to review  of The definition of the foreign policy as a concept or a phenomena , based on the role of  interests  not principles.

The second : Rise of several problematics about the role of the state-nation in globalization era. there are two trends the first one needing  a new conceptual frame work to definition of union as the case of eu. and the second one theoretical framework will the economic approach is the dominant .

I think that  there is no common foreign policy ,but the role of the eu is the Submitted to the dominance of the American vision to  international relations.

Colleagues,

Regarding immigration, problems arise when ethnic groups refuse to assimilate into the core culture of the State to which they emigrate. Perhaps the Roman Republic offers a partial solution. The key is to make citizenship so valuable that immigrants will struggle to obtain it. During the Roman Republic citizenship was required to achieve all things worthwhile. Without it, very little was possible. Obtaining citizenship was quite difficult. A person was required to learn Latin, worship Roman Gods and assimilate into the core Roman culture. Extensive military service as an auxiliary soldier was a common method of acquiring citizenship. Citizenship was the cohesive force that held the Republic and Empire together. Cicero often proclaimed with great pride: "Cives Romanus sum." (I am a Roman citizen.) If Christ had been a Roman citizen he could not have been crucified under Roman law. Race and ethnicity meant virtually nothing. Citizenship meant everything.

A common foreign and security policy for the EU will have many hurdles to jump. There is current unrest within countries about the level of refugees and the EU allocating numbers or refugees to be taken by respective countries.  Security policies will also be difficult as some EU countries eg France and the UK have experienced direct  terrorist attacks while others are in danger of an attack. Each country in the EU will want to respond in their own way  which some would agree is their sovereign right.

Christine,

Would it be helpful if the decision-making institutions of the European Union were granted sovereignty by the member states? Political union might serve to overcome the problems you address. The american political system originally consisted of 13 sovereign states. The United States Constitution unified them and those that followed under the "supreme Law of the Land" clause found in Article VI of that Constitution.   I am advocating  a European  federal political system. I recognize that nationalism would be an enormous hurdle to overcome. Cultural changes such as a common language would have to proceed the political changes. The American colonists were able to unify because they faced common threats. Could the common threats the countries of the European Union now face make political union more plausible?

The EU was never given a governance political institution that would be able to act and give itself a Common Foreign and Security Policy.  Without it, it is a giant without a head which is basically helpless and needs to pay  Turkey for keeping the refugees.  A giant without a head cannot have foreign and security policy.  

The Brexit is a clear sign of things to come. The EU success is very questionable.

The history of the United States unifying the original 13 colonies is very different from how the EU was put together. Nationalism and the right wing politicians will complicate the road ahead for the EU. Immigration is nothing but an escape goat for the mentally challenged in Europe, and anywhere else for that matter.

Another thing that come to mind while I am on the subject of politics.When the American public is influenced by what comedians like Maher say and falsely  pretend to be an expert on Islam, terrorism, national security, etc...We are really in trouble and we might as well go back to the caves .

"A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion."Johnson: The Patriot

The comment above is a reminder of the excesses of the advocates of "BREXIT" and the British people will have to untangle the resulting mess. It also speaks to the issue that economic integration as market expansion opportunities has a limited shelf life - without a commensurate effort to cultivate a shared sensibility and a sense of common identity/citizenship. European elites have shown themselves at this point to have misunderstood the relationship between the promise and performance of the European Union as a scaffold in the construction of a common European home.  

One source of the current crisis has been the failure of the European states to seriously assess how the Bush decision to invade Iraq had illustrated the institutional limitations of the evolution of a Common Foreign and Security Policy among the EU members. That failure, and its longer term consequences in the "War on Terror" have yet to seriously influence the development of a strategy that would allow Europe to use its strategic space within the geo-politics of EURASIA  and the North Atlantic to forge a Common Foreign and Security policy for the present and the future.