Contemporary Europe is the closest approximation to Immanuel Kant's vision of peace based on an institutionalized legal order among democratic member states. Not only has military force become unthinkable between the members of NATO and the European Union. What is more, European democracies have deliberately created a system of security governance designed to foster mutual solidarity and trust. The establishment of crisis reaction forces in external security and the introduction of "mutual recognition" as a corner stone in police and criminal justice cooperation both illustrate the unparalleled level of cooperation in Europe. At the same time, however, the extraordinary level of cooperation has also challenged the effectiveness of democratic control of security politics which, following Kant, has been assigned a key role in ensuring peace. Contemporary Europe is the closest approximation to Immanuel Kant's vision of peace based on an institutionalized legal order among democratic member states. Not only has military force become unthinkable between the members of NATO and the European Union. What is more, European democracies have deliberately created a system of security governance designed to foster mutual solidarity and trust. The establishment of crisis reaction forces in external security and the introduction of "mutual recognition" as a corner stone in police and criminal justice cooperation both illustrate the unparalleled level of cooperation in Europe. At the same time, however, the extraordinary level of cooperation has also challenged the effectiveness of democratic control of security politics which, following Kant, has been assigned a key role in ensuring peace.
This research project addresses 1) the functioning of European governance in external and internal security and 2) the challenge that the Europeanization of security politics poses to its democratic control. The project aims at covering both external and internal security politics issues which can no longer be kept neatly apart.
Email: wm.wagner@fsw.vu.nl
Collaborators: Dr Nicole Deitelhoff (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt) PhD Candidate
Philip Liste (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt)
Prof. Dr. Wouter Werner (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Leader Profile: Dr Wolfgang Wagner , Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam,; Research Associate, CLPE, York University, Toronto
Publications:
Guarding the Guards. The European Convention and the Communitization of Police Cooperation, in: Journal of European Public Policy 13: 8 (2006), 1230-1246.
The Democratic Control of Military Power Europe, in: Journal of European Public Policy 13:2 (2006), 200-216
The Democratic Legitimacy of European Security and Defense Policy, Paris: European Union Institute for Security Studies (Occasional Paper No. 57) 2005.
Building an Internal Security Community: The Democratic Peace and the Politics of Extradition in Western Europe, in: Journal of Peace Research 40: 6 (2003), 695-712.
Europäisches Regieren im Politikfeld Inneres und Justiz, in: Tömmel, Ingeborg (ed.), Die Europäische Union: Governance und Policy-Making, Wiesbaden: VS Verlag (Special Issue of Politische Vierteljahresschrift 2/2007), forthcoming.