Master's Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,7, Humboldt-University of Berlin, course: Doppelmaster FU/HU/UP - Sciences Po Paris, language: English, abstract: This Master thesis in the field of International Relations deals with the emergence of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and its institutional ties with the North-Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), as defined in the so-called Berlin Plus Agreements. Between European autonomisation and US control through NATO, the thesis explores the conditions of ESDP's formation in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In doing so, it refers to changes in the international system, domestic developments and institutional design; it concludes that ESDP will probably continue on the path of autonomisation, given the circumvention of Berlin Plus and NATO in later missions, and given differing European and US interests in a changing world.