This dissertation identifies and explores key power structures present in the contemporary international system. The dissertation focuses on the United States and the European Union to evaluate the thesis put forward by Robert Kagan in his work “Power and Weakness” and Paradise and Power and further explores the assumption that Europe and the United States have divergent approaches towards Defence and Security Policy. The focus of this divergence is the value placed on hard and soft power by the two actors. Use of NATO will also be looked at to identify what the actors see NATO as being primarily of use for. The question here is to assess whether there is potential for defence and security policy harmonisation in order to provide for a mutually beneficial and complementary approach.
Given their approaches to Defence and Security, the United States is best understood using a Realist perspective whereas the European Union is understood more from Liberal and Constructivist frameworks. This dissertation will use a Constructivist methodology to bridge the divide that exists between the two actors. The analysis will draw primarily on secondary literature from the field of International Relations.
The analysis presented identifies "unilateral-multilateralism" as a policy approach adopted by the United States which allows the United States access to multilateral resources to promote its unilateral agenda. As a result of this approach, NATO is being used as a “pool of resources” by the United States. On the one hand, this reinforces the assumption that NATO is a forum for the expression of hard power. On the other hand, the European Union provides its members with an alternative forum for the expression of soft power. As all European Union Member States are either full members of or have formal links to NATO, it thus follows that these institutions are part of a comprehensive European Security framework.
This dissertation concludes that whilst appearing to be divergent in nature it is possible for the United States and the European Union to develop mutually supportive and complementary Security and Defence policies that emphasise both of the actors’ strengths, conceptualisations and understandings of the world. This, in turn, will lead to greater success in achieving the professed goals of the actors concerned.