Reading the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union in terms of the issue of Terrorism : An analysis on the evolution of the CFSP of the EU under the issue of Terrorism

In the post Cold-War era, world politics was transforming itself through its emerging complex issues such as terrorism and influential and interdependent actors such as the European Union. In this new era, the European Union was developing its Common Foreign and Security Policy pillar both to present a coherent and unified EU policy and to prove its political potent in order to become an influential actor on world politics. On the other side, security environment was also transforming its content through emerging actors and issues. As one of the most prominent actors of the world politics, the EU was influenced by the transformation of security environment, whose economic ‘soft power’ proved necessary but insufficient for being a global power in this emerging security environment. Insufficiency of economic power in solving security problems became more visible with the terrorist attacks of September 11 and March 11 which proved the seriousness of a globalized security threat posed by terrorism. After the events took place, the EU’s security approach and threat assessment have been transformed in which the issue of terrorism occupied more profound place by ‘securitization’ of its context. The Common Foreign and Security Policy of the EU began to play more prominent role on EU policies together with incorporating the efforts on the issue of fight against terrorism both to EU’s external relations and to its security dimension. Therefore, in this study, the author analyzes the research question of the development of the CFSP of the EU together with the impact of the issue of terrorism in this transforming security environment. Since examination of such a complex security issue necessitates multidimensional approach, then liberal and realist theories are used as complementary analytical instruments guiding the theoretical framework of the study