Europe's new security strategy: Challenges for development policy

The implementation of an effective security policy has emerged as one of the European Union's top priorities at the century's turn. In this context, the European Security Strategy of 2003 has further intensified the discussion about the role of European development policy in the EU's external relations. To what extent should development policy be subordinated to a common European security policy, and how could European development policy allocate its scarce resources effectively to maintain its original relevance? This paper discusses the challenges for development policy that emerge from the increasing interdependencies between security and development policy. Beyond outlining key arguments that promote a more proactive involvement of development policy in European security policy, we suggest some possible scenarios for European development cooperation in the context of the new framework of Europe's external relations. These scenarios are based on the identification of three mega-projects of the European aid agenda. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.