The Europeanization of Defence Industry Policy

Sammanfattning: Drawing from both European integration theory and new institutional organisation theory, this study investigates the Europeanization of the defence industry policy area from 1989-2001, with a special focus on developments in Sweden. Among other things, the study shows how a European defence industry market has begun to emerge as an industrially-led but politically-sanctioned process, made possible through a re-structuring of the defence industry at the same time as European rules have been created in order to facilitate the common production of defence equipment. Increased integration of this policy area has been possible because of a change of the dominant norms, where the defence industry has more and more come to be seen as an issue of economy than before. It also shows how the issue of the supply of defence equipment emerged as a political issue in Sweden in the mid-1990s and that there was a slight change in the view of how security can be obtained: not only through self-sufficiency in defence equipment production but also through collaboration. The relationships between the actors in the traditional “Swedish model” changed, as some actors developed in a more European context than others; and where actor identities could no longer be taken for granted. The Swedish Defence Materiel Administration has undergone several re-organisations in the time period studied, partially as a consequence of a Europeanization of the policy area, but more as a consequence of a more general trend of “marketisation” of the state administration. This trend, which was not unique to Sweden, appears to have worked as a mediating factor, enabling the increased integration of the policy area. This also implies a very close connection between European integration and Europeanization, where Europeanization in this case has enabled a more formal integration process.