Crisis Management at the Margins? Reassessing EU Crisis Management in a Fragmented World Order

Abstract

This panel critically examines how the role of external crisis management has evolved in EU foreign policy under pressures marked by wars in the EU’s periphery and rapid shifts in global order. On the one hand, recent years have produced concrete aims in capability development regarding crisis management, motivated especially by the need to support Ukraine and its defence forces. On the other hand, the increasing focus on European defence coupled with intensifying geopolitical competition seems to have shrank the space available for the global dimension of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy, and its civilian elements. This panel addresses the evolution of EU’s civilian and military crisis management in this light, focusing particularly on the continuities and shifts in the discourse and practice of crisis management, the (dis)connection between political motivations and implementation, as well as the ability of the EU to reform the practice of crisis management. Specifically, the panel puts forward a new theoretical approach to understanding evolution in EU crisis management, embedded in the notion of competition among strategic subcultures. The panel also cumulates understanding of the implications of the persistent lack of a common approach, with regard to the difficulties in implementation of long-standing reform recommendations and lessons identified especially in once-ambitious civilian CSDP. Additionally, the disconnect between the EU’s political crisis management goals and institutional incentives for adaptation to achieve these goals is analyzed in connection to its outcome as protracted missions, which often prioritize political symbolism and inertia over effective conflict resolution. Through these approaches, the panel sheds light to the opportunities in this pivotal, crisis moment, to rethink governance structures, strengthen organizational learning mechanisms, and foster strategic coherence among member states, which could enhance the EU’s capacity as a global security provider. Such reforms would not only reinvigorate an element central to the EU’s identity as a peace and security actor but also improve the Union’s ability to contribute meaningfully to global security governance in a volatile international landscape.

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