European aircraft collaboration: The influence of structure on political and industrial strategy.

摘要

Since the end of World War II, government leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have promoted European aerospace collaboration as a means to solve some of the economic and military problems of Western Europe. NATO officials have touted defense aerospace cooperation as a way to increase alliance military and economic efficiency. European federalists have supported European aircraft collaboration as a means to enhance regional industrial competitiveness. Finally, politicians in the major aircraft-producing nations of France, Britain and Germany have encouraged aerospace joint ventures in order to reduce development costs, maintain a viable national aerospace industry, and prevent excessive dependence on American aircraft equipment.;The case of European military and civil aircraft collaboration since World War II provides an interesting test of the root causes of international industrial cooperation. This dissertation focuses on two related arguments. First, while the quest for NATO efficiency, European competitiveness and European unity have all influenced European aircraft programs, the primary cause of European aerospace collaboration has been national interest rather than collective interest.;Second, the reason why military aerospace cooperation takes the form of ad hoc partnerships driven by the national demand for "juste retour" is because the military market and political structures of Western Europe favor national rather than regional strategies of collaboration. There is no common armaments market in Western Europe; there are national markets for weaponry. There is not a federal Europe; there are individual nation-states existing in a structure of international anarchy. In such a self-help system, the insecurity of nation-states is maximized and their focus is on how relative gains will be distributed in cooperative ventures. The strategies will not change until the structures change. This dissertation analyzes the European capacity to make the necessary reforms in Western Europe's market and political structures in order to make regional aircraft collaboration more efficient.