Functional security

This report is based on a conference held at the Swedish National Defence College on December 5-6, 2003. The conference, called The Europeanisation of ”Functional” Security: the European Security and Defence Policy and Domestic Nordic Structures, was organised by the Department of security and Strategic Studies with financial support from the Nordic Security Policy Research Program. The aim of the conference was to address the question of how the EU’s new security identity and the closely linked Europeanisation of national security affect the relationship between theory and CFSP/ESDP. A new approach – ’functional’ security – was discussed as a way to understand the complexity and explain the driving forces of today’s ESDP. Functional security concerns the ability of the government and the society to function; for critical infrastructures to be maintained; the ability to lead society; to articulate certain basic values and so forth.