European Foreign Policy and the War in Afghanistan: On the Role and Consequences of a British-French-German Directorate in the Decision-Making in the CFSP.

9/11 and the war on terror seemed to expose the limits of a truly common foreign and security policy, as the big three EU member states ? Germany, Britain and France ? scrambled for national influence in the war in Afghanistan at the expense of EU unity. Each claimed to speak for Europe, given that the EU CFSP lacked the capabilities of going beyond declarations of solidarity with the US, but did so against the objection (and over the heads) of smaller member states as well as the Belgian Presidency and the CFSP High Representative Javier Solana. Given the continuous efforts since the creation of CFSP in 1993 to construct a common foreign policy, the question that arises from these events is whether the events of 9/11 and the US-led war on terror have exposed the limits of Europeanization understood as a convergence of views towards a common foreign policy, or whether the changed geo-strategic landscape and US military dominance have not fundamentally changed national commitments to CFSP. This paper will analyse the policies of Britain, France and Germany towards CFSP using the war in Afghanistan as a case study. It will explore the attitudes of the three member states towards CFSP to determine whether the British, French and German foreign policies were a sign for the permanent re-assertion of informal directorates in CFSP or a national struggle for assertion in a changed geo-strategic landscape at the expense of CFSP, and what consequences this is likely to have on the institution itself. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]