Paradigms of European Security in the Foreign Policy of France, Germany, and Great Britain (2014-2022)

Abstract

The purpose is to investigate the peculiarities of the formation and implementation of the European regional security concepts of France, Germany, and Great Britain in their comparison in the historical context of the foreign policy of these states with an emphasis on the period 2014—2022.

The research methodology was formed by the principles of historicism, systematicity and impartiality, general scientific methods of logic, comparative analysis, and special historical methods (historiographical analysis, historical-systemic, chronology, historical-genetic, retrospective analysis, comparative-historical).

The scientific novelty lies in the study of the implementation history of the theoretical approaches of France, Germany, and Great Britain to the European regional security policy in the context of the history of their foreign policy in a comparative dimension. The transformation of three national paradigms of European security in the context of changes in the system of modern international relations in the conditions of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which actually began in 2014, was traced. Particular attention is paid to the influence of these paradigms on Ukraine’s international position and changes in the system of international relations and European security.

Conclusions. Throughout the entire history of European integration, each of the three leading states of Western Europe tried to realize leadership ambitions in regional politics in their own special way, compensating for the loss of global status. France, Germany, and Great Britain represent different paradigms of foreign policy — Eurocentric, Euro-Atlantic (intermediate), and Atlantic, respectively. Throughout the development of the EU’s security policy, France and Germany played the role of apologists and initiators of reforms, while Great Britain played the role of an antagonist of integration. The process of forming the EU’s foreign and security policy was reduced to the search for a compromise, which led to its incompleteness. Differences in views on the European integration of political elites did not allow the three states to form an effective regional security core without the participation of the United States. Even in the studied period of 2014—2022, marked by a sharp aggravation of the crisis of the European security system, differences between Great Britain, France and Germany remained insurmountable regarding the current problems of international relations. Current events related to Ukraine and the mechanisms of their resolution were no exception. Although the large-scale aggression of Russia against Ukraine in 2022 contributed to the consolidation of the views and approaches of the politicians of the vast majority of Western states regarding the need to review the system of regional policy and oppose Russian aggression, the Russo-Ukrainian war illustrates the problems of preserving the conflictual nature of the interaction of existing European security paradigms and leaves open the question of the possibility of forming a new, effective comprehensive system of regional security in the short term without a final answer.