UK's stands on the CFSP since the St. Malo declaration

Abstract

Since the End of the cold war, the issue of CFSP has taken many turns. The United Kingdom has moved towards an idea of common defence with its European counterparts. In my thesis I will analyze various documents to explain the position of the United Kingdom vis-a-vis the CFSP. Since I am writing from a specific period, which is from the St.Malo summit to the present day, I will analyse, in more detail, the main summits in which the United Kingdom participated (St.Malo, Cologne, Helsinki and Nice). In my research I will also explain Britain's position as a middle nuclear power and its special relationship with the US. Here we will see how the UK became a nuclear power and who supported the UK in achieving this goal. We will also look into the main areas in which the UK and the US cooperate. The current UK - US relations and the way they are shaping up will also be discussed. The analysis also focuses on disagreement between UK and US. What will stand out in my research is the integration issue, and how the UK sees the European Union and what it perceives as further obstacles are to integration. This entails going back in time to the creation of EFT A and then moving on to post membership issues such as Britain's attitude to the common Agricultural Policy (CAP) This period following St Malo showed UK performing an important change with respect to European defence. In my research I want to show the main points of this, what was achieved during this period is something that some years before was unthinkable. What I will also argue is the way the United Kingdom handled various war crises (Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, The 11 th September 2001 period and The Second Persian Gulf War) and their relationship with the UK and CFSP. NATO and EU's point of view in these conflicts will be analysed. Here we can appreciate the UK stance and how this affected the UK's Foreign Policy and overall the Union's Common Foreign and Security Policy.