Battle for Authority in European Defence Cooperation

This book addresses one of the most profound transformations in internationalgovernance: the proliferation of regime complexity.Regime complexes can be found wherever state interests clash. Thus, even in one of themost constitutionalized of institutional environments, the European Union (EU), regimecomplexity features prominently - especially in European defence cooperation, wherestates have created competing institutions overlapping in their mandates to organizearmaments cooperation or defence planning.The tense relationship between theinstitutions of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and those of NATOis well-known. Yet inter-institutional conflict is not limited to this dichotomy. It extendsto institutions beyond these two frameworks, such as those of the former WesternEuropean Union and regional defence cooperation frameworks such as the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO), or OCCAR - a minilateral armaments agency.All these institutions have partially overlapping membership structures and mandates andtherefore rival authority claims in the field of European defence. This book uncovers the hidden regularities of the ongoing battle for institutional authority among EU member states.