The Assessment of Permanent Structured Cooperation from post-structuralist point of view

The European Union's Common Security and Defense Policy has taken a new breath through the newly created Permanent Structured Cooperation Initiative. For a long time, European integration has not been brought to a level that would allow any interference in the security and defense policy of its Member States. Examination of the presented window of opportunity and the following acceptance of the PESCO initiative becomes a frequently discussed topic that can provide us with an insight into its future evolvement. This Master's Thesis looks at the gradual development of a narrative in the field of security and defense through lenses of post-structuralism, examines the created discourse in which the initiative is formed and introduced by leading European and non-European actors and finally, evaluates already established discourse around PESCO. At the same time, the method of the data collection by means of mind-mapping technique represents an unusual form of inputs-collection that on the other hand guarantees the closest proximity with the demands of post-structuralism and offers a unique insight into the unstructured and straightforward way of thinking of the research participants. The Master's thesis revealed an underlying perception of the relationship between the concept of security and defense in Europe and the newly created initiative. The discourse around PESCO is not yet clearly depicted and the awareness of the projects implemented within the initiative is relatively low, furtherly PESCO runs into a well-established North Atlantic Alliance discourse, as well. NATO is perceived as the sole guarantor of security, defense and western values in Europe. However, recently, we can observe the approximation of the employed narratives by the highest representatives of Germany and France, as well as, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union that precludes the bright future for PESCO.