The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) is the organised, agreed foreign policy of the European Union (EU) for mainly security and defence diplomacy and actions. CFSP deals only with a specific part of the EU's external relations, which domains include mainly Trade and Commercial Policy and other areas such as funding to third countries, etc. Decisions require unanimity among member states in the Council of the European Union, but once agreed, certain aspects can be further decided by qualified majority voting. Foreign policy is chaired and represented by the EU's High Representative.
The CFSP sees the NATO responsible for the territorial defence of Europe and "peace-making". However, since 1999, the European Union is responsible for implementing missions, such as "peace-keeping" and policing of treaties, etc. A phrase that is often used to describe the relationship between the EU forces and NATO is "separable, but not separate": The same forces and capabilities form the basis of both EU and NATO efforts, but portions can be allocated to the European Union if necessary. Concerning missions, the right of first refusal exists: the EU may only act if NATO first decides not to.
Read more about Common Foreign And Security Policy: History, Objectives, Defence Policy, Outside The CFSP, Neutrality
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“We have almost succeeded in leveling all human activities to the common denominator of securing the necessities of life and providing for their abundance.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Was I not born in this Realm? Were my parents born in any foreign country?... Is not my Kingdom here? Whom have I oppressed? Whom have I enriched to other’s harm? What turmoil have I made to this Commonwealth that I should be suspected to have no regard of the same?”
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“Will mankind never learn that policy is not morality,—that it never secures any moral right, but considers merely what is expedient? chooses the available candidate,—who is invariably the devil,—and what right have his constituents to be surprised, because the devil does not behave like an angel of light? What is wanted is men, not of policy, but of probity,—who recognize a higher law than the Constitution, or the decision of the majority.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)