The non-influence of European public opinion on Europe's engagement in Afghanistan

Résumé du document

"The war in Afghanistan has been unpopular in continental Europe for a long time" noticed The Observer in July 2009 when in April 2009 the Guardian reported: "Barack Obama today won agreement for substantial NATO troop reinforcements in Afghanistan, when nine European nations, including Britain, said they would send up to 5,000 troops and logistical help ahead of the presidential elections there in August".

Throughout the twentieth century the importance of public opinion was stressed by scholars and by some politicians when dealing with diplomatic and military decisions, however the importance of public opinion in civilian-military cooperation seems to have been overrated. Indeed the dichotomy between European public opinion and the decisions of the civilian-military actors regarding the war in Afghanistan questioned to what extent public opinion impacts civilian-military relations on strategic issues.

To define this role one can look at the context of public opinion's role on diplomatic and military issues as well as the general situation in Afghanistan, then one may consider the lack of support of European public opinion towards the conflict and finally briefly explain the reasons of the European governments' behaviors.

The concept of public opinion remains hard to define that is why some authors prefer to talk about public opinions, in this essay we will consider public opinion - according to Encyclopedia Britannica - as "an aggregate of the individual views, attitudes, and beliefs about a particular topic, expressed by a significant proportion of a community" measured by polls.

Extraits

[...] These arguments could be used to design a common European military diplomacy as the war in Afghanistan illustrates that currently European military diplomacy is framed in NATO under US leadership. Bibliography - Badie, Bertrand, L'opinion à la conquête de l'international Raisons politiques, 2005/3 no19, août-septembre 2005, pp. 9-24. - Blanc, Florent, Loisel, Sébastien, Scherrer, Amandine, Politique étrangère et opinions publiques : les stratégies gouvernementales d'influence et de contrôle de l'opinion publique à l'épreuve de son internationalisation Raisons politiques, 2005/3 no 19, août-septembre 2005, pp. [...]

[...] - “International Security Assistance Force Key Facts and Figures”, NATO website, November retrieved November http://www.isaf.nato.int/images/stories/File/Placemats/15%20NOV.Placemat%20p age1-3.pdf. - Korski, Daniel, “Afghanistan: Europe's forgotten Policy paper European Council on Foreign Relations, January p. - Kreps, Sarah, Elite Consensus as a Determinant of Alliance Cohesion: Why Public Opinion Hardly Matters for NATO-led Operations in Afghanistan Foreign Policy Analysis pp. 191-215. - Mor, Ben D., The rhetoric of public diplomacy and propaganda wars: A view from self-presentation theory European Journal of Political Research pp. [...]

[...] Ibid., p Ibid., p Blanc, Florent, Loisel, Sébastien, Scherrer, Amandine, Politique étrangère et opinions publiques : les stratégies gouvernementales d'influence et de contrôle de l'opinion publique à l'épreuve de son internationalisation Raisons politiques, 2005/3 no 19, août-septembre 2005, p Ibid., p Ibid., p Troops in Afghanistan in November 2010 are : Austria Belgium 491, Bulgaria 516, Croatia 299, Czech Republic 468, Denmark 750, Estonia 140, Finland 150, France 3850, Germany 4341, Greece 80, Hungary 502, Ireland Italy 3688, Latvia 189, Lithuania 219, Luxembourg Netherlands 242, Poland 2519, Portugal 95, Romania 1648, Slovakia 250, Slovenia 75, Spain 1576, Sweden 500. “International Security Assistance Force Key Facts and Figures”, NATO website, November The countries agreeing to contribute further help, according to European diplomats, include Poland [ Spain, Croatia, Greece and the Netherlands. Germany is expected to confirm that it will be sending extra troops to the largely peaceful north of Afghanistan for the election on 22 August. [...]

[...] - Duke, Simon, The EU and Crisis Management, Development and Prospects, European Institute of Public Administration, Maastricht p. - Evans, Peter B., Jacobson, Harold K., Putnam, Robert D. Putnam, ed., Double-edged diplomacy, international bargaining and domestic politics, University of California Press, USA p. - Everts, Philip, Sinnott, Richard, Opinion publique, défense européenne et intervention militaire Revue internationale et stratégique, Dalloz, 2002/4 no 48, hiver 2002-2003, pp. 147-158. [...]

[...] Indeed the fact that the main political parties of European countries tend to agree on sending troops in Afghanistan lowered the possibility of the electors to sanction parties according to their choice on this issue[26], furthermore being part of a multilateral organisation provide strong incentives to cooperate (being perceived as a trustful partner . ) and high costs in case of defection.[27] Only 20% of Europeans will refuse any military intervention regardless of the context[28], therefore the opposition of European public opinion is grounded on several reasons other that the common argument of European pacifism. [...]