The EU, NATO and the European defence market: do institutional responses to defence globalisation matter?

The European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are both institutions through which European states can engage in European defence-industrial cooperation. Each organisation embodies a unique set of institutional tools through which to manage issues such as the high and rising costs of defence procurement, technological innovation, defence R&D, standardisation, multinational capability programmes and interoperability. In short, the EU and NATO are institutional tools through which European states can manage the positive effects and negative consequences of defence globalisation. By drawing on an innovative conceptual framework derived from the institutional interaction literature, this article analyses how the EU and NATO interact with one another for defence-industrial issues. In doing so, the article principally aims to provide a conceptually informed analysis of the appeal of each body as a mechanism for defence-industrial cooperation and how each institution affects the other.