The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

284 THE BROADER DIMENSIONS OF SECURITYneighbouring states in the Middle East and North Africa. The goal of the EU isnot the defence of the territory at the borders of a geographically delimited area,but rather the defence of an unspecified ‘people’ and an undefined institutionalcapacity for democracy. Moreover, this applies to a territory that in practicestretches beyond the borders of the EU member states in the context of theimperative to prevent terrorist threats internationally, as envisaged by theEuropean Security Strategy. The Solidarity Clause thus opens the way for botha deepening and widening of the EU security field.The clause is clearer regarding when mutual assistance should be carried out.The EU members should take preventive measures before an attack, constantlyprotect each other and assist after a member state has been attacked. The EU isattempting to redefine the basis for defence from a question of where—inside oroutside, internal or external—to an issue of when. This change in security anddefence thinking involves a shift of focus from space to pace. European Unionassistance to a member state will occur at the request of its political authoritiesin the event of a terrorist attack. It is still an open question whether and in whatform the EU would assist in cases of emergency when the political authoritiesof a member state are unable to articulate such a demand. It is perhaps not toofar-fetched to posit EU assistance also in such hypothetical cases, consideringthat the EU and its member states, according to the clause, ‘shall act jointly inthe spirit of solidarity’ if a member state is attacked. The wording evokes theimage of an emerging European system to be protected and a European societyto feel responsible for. However, the question remains: what kind of threat orcrisis would be truly ‘European’ and thus activate the clause?With the Solidarity Clause on terrorism, the EU might, as the first internationalentity of its kind, be able to take a step towards a new type of transnational,functional or ‘societal’ defence, 83 in contrast to state defence. The goalof the EU will be not territorial but functional integrity. 84 Bengt Sundelius concludesthat the Solidarity Clause attempts to combine state security and humansafety in the ‘intermestic sphere’ (international–domestic)—as he defines thesecurity domain for the EU. 85 If successful, the clause will probably have astrong positive impact on the long-term formation of an EU (defence) identity.This emerging EU ‘total defence’ concept would differ from collective territorialdefence for ‘internal’ security as well as from external EU crisis management.In harmony with its uniquely transnational character, the EU couldbecome a defence union rather than a defence alliance. It could be a step that,with time, might be a model also for other parts of the world. Perhaps Europecould be linked together with similar regional systems into a global defencenetwork for the combating of today’s network-based global terrorism.83 Sundelius, B., Swedish Defence Commission, Totalförsvaret är överspelat: vi behöver ett samhällsförsvar![Total state defence is a thing of the past: we need a societal defence!] (Försvarsberedningen,Försvarsdepartementet: Stockholm, 2001), URL .84 The author thanks Carl Einar Stålvant for this observation.85 Sundelius (note 71), p. 8.