The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

THE INTERFACE OF EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SECURITY 285The Solidarity Clause on terrorism will serve as an instrument that contributesto the dissolution of the boundary between internal civil protection foremergencies and external crisis management for security. 86 It could be interpretedas bridging the two main views that have coexisted so far on the finalitéof EU defence: collective defence, on the one hand, and crisis management andsecurity through networks on the other. An EU defence within the territory ofthe EU is more easily reconciled with European integration’s traditional role ofcreating a long-term zone of peace, in contrast to the defence of territory for itsown sake. The latter is more closely associated with traditional military instrumentsof power, which could be detrimental to relations with certain third countriesand to the image of the EU as a security model. The EU could thus becomea defence power while simultaneously avoiding a new and potentially destabilizingbalance-of-power relationship with neighbouring regions. The EU candidatestates could be involved at an early stage of the accession process, andneighbouring and other states should be allowed to participate as far as possible.Gustav Hägglund, former chairman of the EU Military Committee, hasproposed the development of an EU ‘homeland defence’ which would alsoinvolve military measures. 87 One thing is clear: the current discussion on thecoordination of civil–military instruments in external missions will parallel thedebate about defence within the EU territory. Intensive horizontal, transsectoralcoordination will be needed within the EU. The question is who willtake on the prime coordinating responsibility.VII. Towards a new trans-boundary EU security role: from aEuropean security community to a secure EuropeancommunityThis chapter elaborates the concept of a deepening and widening Europeansecurity field as a way to understand and transcend the division betweeninternal and external EU security. The new roles of Nordic armed forces are akey factor behind the increasingly closer interface of national internal andexternal security and the deepening of the security concept. The EU response tothe attacks of September 2001 has been a driving force for both deepening andwidening this interface, and this has implications for the role of the EU in termsof functional security and an eventual defence union.In a longer-time perspective, the transformation of the EU security fieldpoints in the direction of a new historical stage in the security role of the Union.An important observation from the history of war and conflicts is that nationstates have had a strong tendency to plan their security and defence in accordancewith the lessons learned from the most recent war. In the 1950s the EuropeanCommunity helped the West European states to break this vicious circle of86 de Wijk (note 72).87 ‘EU should encompass homeland security, says EU military chief’, EUobserver.com, 28 Feb. 2003.