EU and U.S. Strategies against Terrorism and Proliferation of WMD: A Comparative Study.

摘要

This paper is intended to give a comparative analysis of the strategies of U.S. and EU towards two major global security threats terrorism and the proliferation of WMD. These threats, and especially their coupling, represent the gravest danger for world security in the beginning of the 21st century. With the U.S. and EU being two of the most powerful actors in terms of economic weight, population, political and humanitarian influence, it is especially important to analyze their security strategies and see to what extent they converge/diverge and what future developments could await in the future. The task of the paper is to analyze the respective documents of the EU and U.S. and official speeches and statements from 2001 to 2006, to compare strategy and tactics ( words and actions ), and to compare the views of two sides and analyze the changes that have taken place in that timeframe. As comparison between EU and U.S. strategies cannot be approached from the state- actor point of view, the approach is policy- rather than actor-centric. While acknowledging that the matter in hand is enormous, the paper strives to take a comprehensive look at the differences and commonalities in the EU and U.S. approach in dealing with terrorism and proliferation as well as show that they differences and commonalities) stem from the overall approach of EU and U.S. to global security and their own role in the world affairs. Many factors were omitted from the analysis to make it crisp and clear and the influence of such factors is subject for further studies.