The ongoing efforts by European Union (EU) member states to create a European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) present both an opportunity and a challenge to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On the one hand, an effective European military capability will address the perceived imbalance in military and financial burden-sharing between the two sides of the Atlantic. On the other hand, should this capability render the EU sufficiently “autonomous,” NATO's current institutional set-up and existential rationale will be open to challenge. It is, therefore, uncertain whether the ESDP will prove complementary or competitive to NATO as a provider of European security.
