CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Timofei, Eslem Nur |
|---|---|
| Title | European Strategic Autonomy Revisited: Understanding Its Meaning for France and Poland |
| Summary | This thesis examines how the concept of European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) is interpreted by two key EU Member States: France and Poland. While ESA has evolved beyond its original focus on defence to encompass sectors such as technology and energy, it remains ambiguously defined and contested among EU members. France and Poland are frequently portrayed as being on opposing sides of this debate—France as a strong supporter, Poland as sceptical. However, this study demonstrates that their perspectives are more nuanced than this simple distinction implies. Through a comparative case study and congruence analysis, this research applies four conceptual frameworks—geopolitical actorness, strategic culture, the Atlanticist–Europeanist divide, and the capability–expectation gap—to assess national discourses on ESA across the defence, technology, and energy domains. The findings show that France frames ESA as a means of strengthening EU sovereignty and global influence, whereas Poland presents it in more limited and pragmatic terms, with greater emphasis on specific sectors rather than a broad strategic vision. The analysis reveals that their understandings of ESA are influenced by a combination of historical experiences, threat perceptions, strategic orientations, and material capabilities. This thesis contributes to the ESA debate by offering a multidimensional understanding of national positions and what that means for future cooperation. |
| Supervisor | Michael Merlingen |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/cetinay_eslem.pdf |
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