| Is the European Union (EU) really the security partner it thinks it is? The great majority of the scholarly literature on United States (US)-EU security relations thinks so. The literature, authored overwhelmingly by Europeans, claims that the EU has much of value to offer the US in terms of a security partnership. These Euro-centric authors consistently urge the US to engage with the EU on a much more serious level when it comes to security affairs. They argue that, because the EU has so much to offer, the US should not turn down any chance to partner with the EU in global security operations. Yet, this is far from the reality. Because the scholarly literature is so heavily weighted on European perceptions on this issue, US perceptions are seldom addressed. This thesis, through original research, uncovers US perceptions of the EU as a security partner. It argues that the US perceives the EU to be a limited security partner. This perception is proportionately linked to the perceived value of the EU’s security contributions to US interests. The US perceives those security contributions to be generally limited. These findings support Henry Kissinger’s theory that the US values its international security partners to the extent that those partners contribute to US security interests. |
