Description: "The EU has increased its commitment in response to crises, however, in the face of new threats and emerging crises, its capacity to build a distinctive role in crisis management remains problematic. Resurging divergences in major member states' positions, requiring dual adaptation of the EU level of governance with the national projection of interests, are posing a serious challenge to the objective of a more integrated European defense and security strategy. This collection offers valuable insights for understanding how a distinctive EU vision on peace missions has emerged and whether it is there to last. Bringing an innovative perspective to European Union engagement in peace operations, this volume combines theoretical reflection with the analysis of empirical case studies that illustrate not only the EU's action in the framework of its Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), but also how it engages with other actors in the field including international organisations, non-governmental organisations and local citizens"--
Review Quotes:
'How effectively can the EU respond to the wide array of challenges to global and regional security it faces? This impressive collection of essays provides unique insights into the capacities for and constraints on EU crisis management.'
Richard Caplan, Professor of International Relations, Oxford University
'As an integral part of the western bloc, the EU confronts a range of challenges as it attempts to manage crises on its frontiers and in former imperial spheres. This timely collection of essays offers important insights into the EU's peace operations and its Common Security and Defence Policy.'
Michael Pugh, Visiting Professor, Institute of Management Research, Centre for Conflict Analysis and Management, Radboud University Nijmegen, and Emeritus Professor University of Bradford
'Through a combination of wide-ranging conceptual papers and a series of empirical studies of EU operations, this book offers a serious and comprehensive account of the difficult emergence of an EU strategic vision for defence and security. A must-read for anyone interested in EU security studies, the making of institutional strategic culture and the management of international crises.'
Thierry Tardy, Senior Analyst, EU Institute for Security Studies
'With crises encroaching on the borders of the European Union while Europe is primarily preoccupied with its own concerns this book could not be more topical or relevant. The various strategic outlooks of the EU countries complicate the process of developing a strategic EU vision for defence and security, let alone integrating such policies into a comprehensive approach, a task that even traditional nation states find difficult. Managing Crisis, Making Peace focuses on one of the EU's main tools, relatively small civilian and military missions. Although these missions are very important to conflict management, they may fail to provide the EU with the capacity to act rapidly when large international crises occur. This book asks relevant questions about the EU's aims, ambitions, (exit) strategies, (comprehensive) approaches and how the EU relates to other actors in the field. By looking at these issues theoretically and by analysing a broad variety of empirical case studies at the implementation level, the book highlights issues that facilitate or hamper the construction of the EU's vision and role in peace operations. It illustrates the many issues that remain to be solved before the EU will be able to sustainably stabilize its neighbourhood, let alone areas further afield, and offers valuable insights for scholars and policymakers alike.'
Jaïr van der Lijn, Head of the Peace Operations and Conflict Management Team at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)