The European Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) has often been a paper tiger lacking the required tools to translate the EU’s goals and objectives into action on the ground. At the core of this problem is an enduring expectations–capabilities gap rooted in the meagre results of joint military capability development of CSDP member states. Many actors in the field, who work under conditions of hierarchical interaction favouring nation states over other actors, hamper the execution of joint projects. Those planned are jeopardised by a lack of shared strategic culture. Christian Küsters argues that a functioning European defence and technological industrial base is essential to underpin the CSDP.