The analysis of the commitment of European Member States and European institutions in the reinforcement of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (unifil) (2006) allows highlighting elements in the discussion concerning the (non-)existence of a European strategic culture. Taking as a starting point the gaps in the classical analyses of the European strategic culture, which focus on its divergent national roots, we consider necessary to also take into account the normative origin of a European strategic culture at the international level, outside the eu. At this level, the European political and military elites are socialized, thus permitting the construction of a shared security and defence vision, before it being clearly codified in the csdp.