Strategic Autonomy and the Changing World Order

Twenty Years of Hungarian CSDP Engagement and Expected Directions in Light of the 2024 EU Presidency

Abstract

The development of the activity of the European Union as a security actor is closely linked to the need for global capacity for action in this domain, with a clearly “softer” role definition than NATO, which is derived from a comprehensive security concept. The aim of this study is to identify how and under what circumstances the European Union’s self-definition in the field of security and defence policy has evolved, how it has attempted and attempts to be present in the changing world order – if it is able at all – as an independent actor asserting its strategic autonomy with a specific voice. In relation to the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, we look back not only on the development of the EU security and defence policy, but also on the two decades of Hungarian operational involvement in it. Our central assumption is that the strengthening of the EU’s strategic autonomy, in which CSDP is one of the core instruments, cannot be avoided amid the challenges of the modern era if the EU wants to preserve its (economic) competitiveness and adaptive responsiveness.