The Europeanization of British defence policymaking: ESDP and the adaptation of Whitehall.

The British government's administrative response to European Union (EU) policymaking has changed over time to account for the redefined institutional rules and new policy competences established through successive "episodic constitutional change" within the EU-a phenomenon Bulmer and Burch have suggested represents a Europeanization of Whitehall. One such constitutional change in the area of defence policy-the establishment of new European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) institutional framework in Brussels following the Nice European Council in December 2000-created the initial institutional imperative within the machinery of British government to adjust established policymaking procedures and bureaucracies to the realities of the EU's new defence and security role. This paper seeks to trace these institutional adaptations in the British government's policymaking machinery and procedures occurring as a result of British participation in ESDP across the main Whitehall departments and ministries involved in the policy process. Its findings are primarily based on interviews conducted between November 2005 and March 2006 with current and former British government officials in the UK's Permanent Representation to the European Union (UKRep), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and No. 10 Downing Street. It concludes that a growing number of British officials have become closely involved in the formulation and implementation of British ESDP policy as these policy demands have grown with the recent proliferation of ESDP operations and institutional initiatives. Consequently, some ministries and departments with little or no previous EU experience such as the Ministry of Defence have begun to participate in the EU policy process. Furthermore, the ability of other Whitehall actors to influence the formulation and implementation of British ESDP policy has changed with the evolution of ESDP at the EU level. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]