1. Narine Ishkhanyan
MA Thesis, YSU, 2010
YEREVAN STATE UNIVERSITY
THE EUROPEAN NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICY IN THE CONTEXT OF
THE EUROPEAN SECURITY STRATEGY
Narine Ishkhanyan
Chapter 1 EU Security Strategy
1.1 Modern threats to European security. ESS implementation report; 1.2 The
concept of stability within the ESS. The ENP as a stability tool; 1.3 Europeanization
as a tool to maintain security.
Chapter 2. Role of the ENP in the context of European security policy
2.1 The ENP and related issues; 2.2 Eastern Partnership. New dimension for
maintaining stability; 2.3 Armenia within ENP.
Introduction
Today's European security perception encompasses a long history of wars, severe struggles
and conquests among the states and nations. Europe was the stage of the two World Wars,
which, in their turn, came to be the first signals for vital necessity of nowadays political
maturity to cooperate.
The strategic goal of the EU, since its creation, is to increase the level of security and stability
among its member states by urging the priority of sustainable political, economic and social

2. Narine Ishkhanyan
MA Thesis, YSU, 2010
relationship on the background of strategic and military interdependence. Thus was laid the
basis of CSDP based on the common values and perceptions1
.
The situation in Europe shifted dramatically in the last 60 years. EU's aspiration to uproot the
armed conflicts within the Union is a reality today. EU is no longer concerned about
potential conflicts in its territory given the reached level of European identity of its members
which makes obvious the interdependency of the security of the EU and of each of the
member states.
The paper strives to reveal the purpose of the regional programs initiated by the EU in its
neighborhood considering the security and stability policy of the Union. The core question
of the research paper is the problem of components of the policy implemented by the EU
driven to ensure the security of the Union as well as the problems related to that policy and
the approach of the states involved in the new initiatives.
Along with the general scientific methods, chronological method (development of the EU’s
external policy from Individual action plans to Eastern Partnership), content analysis (official
documents and announcements), descriptive and analytical methods are being used in the
paper.
The methods mentioned above are applicable equally to my current Ph.D thesis. Critical
thinking is being applied to the analysis of the variables and their relationship. Case study is
conducted to reveal the consistent patterns of EU’s policy in its neighborhood.
Reference has been made not only to the ESS as a legal aspect of EU security but also to the
indirect methods of neutralizing the threats and preventing the dangers mentioned in the
ESS. As such the Europeanization, deepening of interregional cooperative relations,
settlement of the conflicts with democratic methods and other tools are discussed in the
paper.
1
The concept of the “security community” was originally developed by Karl W. Deutsch in 1957. Karl W.
Deutsch et al. Political community and the North Atlantic area: International Organization in the Light of
Historical Experience (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957). 228 p.

3. Narine Ishkhanyan
MA Thesis, YSU, 2010
Conclusion
 Common Euro-Atlantic defense and security of the past 50 years made Europe
dependent from collective security perceptions. The collapse of the USSR made the
factor of a common enemy disappear thus making EU revise its foreign and security
policy approach. Therefore, the ESS is the EU’s first attempt to address international
threats independently.
 Transformation of the EU security concept took place on the background of the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the controversies that occurred among EU
member states during the second Iraq War when EU faced a danger of dividing lines
within the Union.
 The adoption of the ESS preceded the 2004 enlargement of the EU with the states of
former socialist camp which, by and large, did not share the EU’s experience of
cooperation reached during the past decades. The new member states made the EU
borders wider and brought with themselves new neighbors which led the Union to
build a new-format relationship with these countries initiating the ENP and EaP.
 Comparing to the ten “new” members being on their way of democracy consolidation
(required by acquis communautaire), the neighboring countries had and currently
have serious political and economical difficulties given the “frozen” conflicts and
destroyed social-economic system thus threatening stability of the EU. The European
vision of stability is primarily related to the creation of a security and stability zone in
the borders of the EU. This means reduction of the factors of threats which requires
primarily building special relations with the bordering countries. Meanwhile, EU
membership is a question of far future for these countries but the instability alarms
coming from them has been received by Europe long ago.
 Diversification of energy suppliers and transit routes “through engagement with
Central Asia, the Caucasus and Africa, as well as through the Eastern Partnership and

4. Narine Ishkhanyan
MA Thesis, YSU, 2010
the Union for the Mediterranean”2
is one of the core ideas around which the EU
builds its foreign and security policy in the neighborhood and beyond.
 The ENP reveals the EU’s ambitions to play a decisive role in international and
particularly regional security mostly as a normative and civilian power by striving to
promote EU model of democracy in its neighborhood as the most dangerous regions
for the Union. The ENP aimed at preventing rising of potential conflicts indirectly by
introducing developed amendments and offering necessary social-economic projects
in its neighborhood.
 Although the ESS avoids mentioning military aspects of the conflicts bordering the
EU but the introduced non-military tools, in turn, are not clear which puts the
question of efficiency of this policy under doubt.
 However, EU does not offer a scheme but a vision on neutralizing the new threats
emerged in the beginning of the century (terrorism, economic crisis, ecological
disasters, “frozen” conflicts, etc.).
 EU's position of ENP and EaP not being platforms for a membership threatens to
increase the dividing lines between the EU and its neighborhood considering the lack
of satisfactory results. However, the concept of building security of ESS has its direct
positive influence on the states that have become an integral part of border security
and stability of the EU. The involvement of these states in the processes of European
integration and their aspiration to go in line with the standards defined by the EU
reveals the interconnection of the new approach to the security introduced by the EU
and the reforms being carried out in the partner countries.
2
“A Secure Europe in a Better World: European Security Strategy”, Brussels, 12 December 2003, available at
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/78367.pdf. P.14.