Explain the Changing Significance of the Western European Union (Weu)

EXPLAIN THE CHANGING SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WESTERN EUROPEAN UNION (WEU) When the subject of the Western European Union and its position in the evolving European security environment was raised at a discussion of current issues at NATO in 1993, it was described simply as being a "paper tiger" incapable of responding to future crises 1 However the status of the WEU has changed rapidly, particularly with the European Community (EC) agreement at Maastricht defining new responsibilities for the organisation, as witnessed by WEU operations involving NATO seconded personnel and equipment for mine detection in the Persian Gulf, and for the naval blockade of former Yugoslavia in the Adriatic sea 2 In this essay it is my intention to concentrate particularly upon post-Maastricht developments in the role of the WEU and its future prospects, but first I shall briefly provide a background to the institution, and its development during the cold war period. Formed in 1948, a year before NATO, the Western Union as it was then called comprised five members, France, the United Kingdom, and the Benelux countries. The institution was rapidly eclipsed by the formation of the Atlantic Alliance which had both the backing of American politicians and American Dollars, Marshall Aid it could be suggested ensured the attention of European politicians to American concerns. Through the cold war period, the institution was very secondary to NATO, efforts such as the European Defence Community proposals in the early 1950s being stillborn. The WEU did however serve as a European security think-tank, and as an alternative structure to NATO, having both a complex bureaucratic organisation, and committee structures, Although it had no forces of its own until the formation of the Franco-German Corps, or "Euro-Corps" as the media dubbed it 3 A significant consideration in the cold war survival, and flourishing of the organisation (which now has ten members) could be suggested as being the location of its

Bibliography: Booth K, New Thinking about Strategy and International Security (Harper Collins 1991) Ch. 10. Pugh (ed.), European Security - Toward 2000 (Manchester UP 1992) Ch. 1, 8. NATO Review (Various Editions). Rome Declaration on Peace and Co-operation (NATO November 1991). Survival Vol. 34. No. 3 (Autumn 1992). The Strategic Concept (NATO November 1991). The Times.