A Europe in Arms: European Defense Integration in Response to the War in Ukraine

This thesis examines how the European Union’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shaped the degree of European defense integration. Using a qualitative single-case design, it combines process tracing and discourse analysis to examine institutional developments and political narratives between 2016 and 2025. Drawing on neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, and postfunctionalism, the study translates competing theoretical expectations into observed empirical indicators. The findings show that the Ukraine war acted as a catalyst for intensified defense coordination at the EU level. Initiatives such as the Strategic Compass, the Rapid Deployment Capacity, and the expansion of the European Defence Fund reflect heightened functional pressures and increased supranational agenda-setting. At the same time, member states retained decisive control, while concerns about sovereignty and politicization constrained deeper delegation of authority. Overall, EU defense cooperation...Show moreThis thesis examines how the European Union’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has shaped the degree of European defense integration. Using a qualitative single-case design, it combines process tracing and discourse analysis to examine institutional developments and political narratives between 2016 and 2025. Drawing on neofunctionalism, intergovernmentalism, and postfunctionalism, the study translates competing theoretical expectations into observed empirical indicators. The findings show that the Ukraine war acted as a catalyst for intensified defense coordination at the EU level. Initiatives such as the Strategic Compass, the Rapid Deployment Capacity, and the expansion of the European Defence Fund reflect heightened functional pressures and increased supranational agenda-setting. At the same time, member states retained decisive control, while concerns about sovereignty and politicization constrained deeper delegation of authority. Overall, EU defense cooperation after the Russian invasion in 2022 follows a pattern of bounded supranationalism: integration advanced through crisis-induced coordination and discursive convergence but remained institutionally constrained by state interests and domestic legitimacy.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

A Europe in Arms: European Defense Integration in Response to the War in Ukraine