The European Union as a Security Community Against the Backdrop of Challenges Caused by the Global Pandemic

Abstract

The European Union, the most advanced integrational arrangement of its kind today, and a model for other regional integration projects, is a relatively new actor on the international scene. It constitutes a community of values, a normative power, a cultural and political community, but, above all else, a security community. And it is to this fi nal dimension that Europe owes the longest period of peace in its modern history. However, today, faced with a new reality forged by global changes and the emergence of new threats, the theoretical construct of the security community, developed by Karl W. Deutsch, requires new insights and adjustments, including in relation to the European Union. The aim of this study is to establish whether, despite the current crisis, the European Union still meets the criteria of a security community. And considering the changes that have taken place over the years, the research problem amounts to the question of whether the concept of security itself, and thus of the security community, shouldn’t be revised so as to better reflect the present reality. In turn, the research thesis is as follows: despite all the difficulties and more or less unprecedented events, especially those of recent times, the EU meets the criteria of a security community, wherein it presents an intermediate (halfway-house) solution between a pluralistic and an amalgamated community. In support of the presented arguments, primary and secondary sources will be used, and research methods such as a description, interpretation, comparison, and critical assessment of the literature will be applied. Considerations will start with theoretical issues, followed by a discussion of the EU as a new actor on the international scene, after which security factors and their manifestations in the EU will be addressed.