Making sense of European armaments policies: A liberal intergovernmentalist research agenda

The European defense-industrial panorama is rapidly changing. Among all the initiatives conducted, the European Defense Fund (EDF) and the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PeSCo) in defense can be easily considered as proof of a revived interest in defense-industrial cooperation. Given this European activism, it is not surprising that the academic literature has focused on the main actors and the main strategic and economic drivers that have spurred European defense-industrial cooperation. However, the scholarly literature on the topic has erroneously over-emphasized the cooperative elements, while underestimating the peculiarities of a policy-field which remains characterized by both cooperative and competitive dynamics. Indeed, notwithstanding the presence of stable alliances, common regulations in defense procurement and a number of transnational business groups, the European defense-industrial field remains also fragmented in terms of both supply and demand. The article has two goals: first, it proposes a Liberal-Intergovernmentalist research agenda to explain the complex mix of cooperation and competition in this policy-field. Second, it aims to reflect on methodological issues in studying European armaments policies. Overall, the article wants to stimulate a constructive discussion, both from a theoretical and a methodological point of view, on a peculiar policy area that acts as an interface of industrial, technological and defense policies and lies at the intersection of International Relations (IR) traditional distinction between low and high politics.