Leading the European Union’s Development as a Security Actor: A Multi-Level Analysis of the role of EU High Representatives in the Institutionalization of the Comprehensive Approach

This paper theorizes and assesses the evolution and institutionalisation of the European Union (EU) as an International Security Actor during the last two decades by focusing on the interplay between the individual leadership approaches by three successive EU High Representatives on the one hand and key institutional dynamics and processes across institutions and bureaucracies within the EU on the other. Taking a multi-level analysis framework (i.e., examining the level of the international system, the individual level and the bureaucratic level whilst also taking into consideration the impact of the national and inter-organizational level) as a point of departure, the paper combines theories of individual leadership with organizational sociology and theories of institutionalism. By so doing, the paper seeks to shed light on the evolution of the European Union as an International Security Actor and in particular on the institutionalisation of the ‘comprehensive approach’ since the onset of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP, now CSDP) in 1998. The paper examines the impact of leadership initiatives, styles and priorities of the three EU High Representatives (Javier Solana, Catherine Ashton and Federica Mogherini) and their interplay with core EU institutions and bureaucratic changes in the context of the EU’s development in international security affairs and with a particular emphasis on the institutionalisation of the ‘comprehensive approach’ in terms of tools, policies and partners. The paper argues that each High Representative was driven by different priorities (influenced by dynamics at the international and national levels) from Solana’s ‘legitimacy through action’, via Ashton’s build-up of structures for comprehensive crisis management to Mogherini’s push for an integrated approach within the Global Strategy. In addition to integrating theories of leadership and institutionalism, the paper is based on over 40 elite interviews and uses process-tracing within the context of a multi-level framework of analysis.