Nationalism, internationalism and the European defence market

The Institute has had a small study group working on problems of European defence industry over the last three years, under the direction of Juan de Luis. As a culmination of our work in this field, we asked William Walker, Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, and Philip Gummett, who is Reader in Government and Technology Policy at the University of Manchester, to prepare a paper for us which was discussed at an enlarged workshop held at the Institute in April 1993. In the light of discussions at that meeting the authors have revised their paper and we are pleased to be able to present it to a wider audience. The changes in the security environment in Europe, reduced defence budgets and a wider range of challenges have had important implications for defence industries. At the same time, the WEU's Maastricht declaration raised again the question of more effective collaboration in the field of armaments in Europe. This paper examines these problems and we hope will contribute to the further discussion of the themes they raise.