Towards a Theory of the EU as an International Security Provider: Actors, Processes, Outcomes, Impact

Over the past decade the EU has increasingly taken on a role as international security provider that extends well beyond the geographical scope of its membership. This is obvious in the wide range of military and civilian crisis management missions that the EU has undertaken. But also identifiable with a range of other policies, such as the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and development assistance, that have at least in part become more security focused. Our workshop seeks to analyse the EU’s role as an international security actor in a comprehensive way focusing on the making of EU security policy and its implementation. We seek to develop a framework of analysis that will cover the actors involved in the policy making process, the dynamics of this process itself, its outcomes (concrete strategies and policies) and their impact. To establish such a framework of analysis, which could serve as the foundation for a mid-range theory of the EU as an international security provider, will be the main focus of the workshop and build on a range of papers that examine the relevance of, and apply, existing theories of international relations/international security and foreign policy analysis to the specific case of the EU, that investigate empirically how particular policies are formulated and implemented, and that analyse, in single and comparative case studies, the impact and effectiveness of the EU as an international security provider.