The UK and EU foreign and security policy: an optional extra Professor Richard G. Whitman 1

Overview  UK’s foreign, security and defence policy: continuity and change  Competing visions of Britain’s place in the world  Implementation: networks and resources  The UK and the CFSP  The UK and the CSDP  The balance sheet 2

UK foreign policy: Continuity and change  Sources of continuity and change  Change: Structural causes Post-imperial Post-cold war  Continuity: institutional order  The Scylla & Charybdis Europe ‘Special relationship’ 3

Imperial legacy: British Overseas Territories 4

Competing visions of Britain’s post-war place in the world  Churchill’s notion of three concentric circles: A community of Europe The Empire and Commonwealth Anglo-American partnership  The indispensable partner  UK as Middle Power  Europe-first 5

Implementation: Memberships and networks  Multilateral UN Security Council G8  Regional NATO EU  Anglophone Commonwealth British Council 6

Implementation: resources  5 th highest spender on defence (SIPRI, 2014)  2 nd largest donor of ODA $19.4 billion (OCED,2014)  Significant diplomatic infrastructure 160+ embassies & missions (HoC, 2015) 7

Implementation: contemporary military deployments  The move to expeditionary warfare  Retaining a nuclear deterrent  Expanding a naval capability  Major overseas deployments curtailed Iraq Afghanistan  Minor overseas deployments Germany Brunei Cyprus BOTs 8

Implementation: The Political Economy of UK foreign and security policy  Relative decline in the IPE  City of London  £  Defence industry base 9

Guiding strategy  A Strong Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The National Security Strategy - NSS (2010, annual reports)  Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The Strategic Defence and Security Review – SDSR (2010, 5 yearly)  Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR)

Prime Minister and Advisors MOD, FCO, NSC, Intelligence services Parliament, Parties Media, Interest Groups, Public Opinion The concentric circles of power in British foreign policy making Adapted from M.Weber & M.Smith et.al Foreign Policy in A Transformed World, Prentice Hall, p.40 11

UK and the development of the CFSP  Comfortable with European Political Cooperation (EPC) from accession  CFSP as venue not a replacement for national foreign and security policy  Shifting Governmental preferences but within limited spectrum  Supporter of ‘capability-driven’ reforms 12

CFSP: Summarising the British position  Balance of Competences review (2013): positive assessment  Evidence of uploading  Downloading and cross loading less prevalent  Having Ashton as High Rep had no discernable impact on the UK elite view of CFSP 13

UK and the development of the CSDP  St. Malo agreement as high point of engagement  CSDP missions – contributor not a leader  Preference for NATO-focused commitments  Supporter of ‘capability-driven’ reforms such as Battlegroups 14

UK involvement in CSDP military missions: in the top 10 15

UK involvement in CSDP missions 16

Areas of scepticism  Voting on CFSP  EEAS expansionism  European Defence Agency  EU Permanent Military Operational HQ  Permanent structured cooperation  Coalitions of the able and willing member states 17

The UK CFSP/CSDP balance sheet  UK has retains a substantial infrastructure to pursue national foreign, security and defence policy  CFSP and CSDP have been an optional extra for UK foreign, security and defence policy  Participation in CFSP: active but not leading  Participation in CSDP: engaged but not in the vanguard  ‘Shadow of the future’: Brexit 18