Examines how military force has been introduced and integrated into the European Union. Combining a security governance approach with the concept of a 'strategic actor', it assesses how the Common Security and Defence Policy developed, how it functions in practice and the challenges that lie ahead.

1. Introduction: CSDP, strategic actorness and security governance; 2. European strategic culture and the comprehensive approach; 3. In pursuit of the EU interest: state, individual and institutional agency in CSDP; 4. The institutional link: creating a civil-military organisation fit for purpose; 5. Building European capabilities: beyond the transatlantic gap; 6. CSDP operations: learning through failure or failing to learn; 7. Conclusion: a comprehensive strategic actor for the future?

'An innovative approach that establishes what the EU really amounts to as a strategic actor. Refreshing, insightful - and provoking many more questions for academics and practitioners, as a good book should.' Professor Sven Biscop, Director, Europe in the World Programme, Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations'Per Norheim-Martinsen's long-awaited volume offers a sophisticated and rigorously researched conceptual framework within which to embark on a fresh understanding of the EU's true potential as a military actor. Eschewing both short-term pessimism and long-term idealism, Norheim-Martinsen proposes a new understanding of strategic actorness, transcending the limitations of both 'soft' European integration studies and 'hard' US-based strategic studies. He also suggests an innovative interpretation of security governance and generates a new interpretation of the 'comprehensive approach' which increasingly characterizes the EU as an international actor. This book will become an important reference work for scholars and students of both European studies and strategic studies.' Jolyon Howorth, Yale University'As global power flows away from the West to the South and East, can Europe compensate by becoming a more coherent strategic actor? Tracing the development of the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), this scholarly and well-structured analysis gives little ground for optimism. [Norheim-Martinsen's] examination of the vaunted 'Comprehensive Approach' to integrating civilian and military power brings out the European capacity to refine theory whilst neglecting to implement it in practice - and to focus on style rather than the 'ends, means and resolve' of effective strategy. 'The window of opportunity for CSDP to consolidate itself ... is already closing'; practitioners who share with the author the sense that this would be 'a unique opportunity lost' would do well to read this thoughtful dissection of a policy fast losing credibility.' Nick Witney, Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations