Re-defining EU Crisis Management: From CSDP to a Broader Perspective

Since the establishment of the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) in 1999 and its operationalisation from 2003 onwards, policies and activities in civilian and military crisis management have become commonly understood to refer to peacekeeping-like activities (Koops 2011). The EU carried out Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP - renamed since the Treaty of Lisbon) missions in Aceh, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Guinea-Bissau, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sudan, Somalia, and Ukraine. However, especially in the last decade, the EU has managed a growing number of crises different from the ones related to civilian and military operations, like the earthquakes in Haiti (2010), Japan (2011) and Nepal (2015), the E. Coli epidemic in Germany in 2011, the Ebola crisis in 2014, the floods in Poland (2010) and in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2014). This Section aims to go beyond what is commonly understood by academia as EU Crisis Management (see Gross and Juncos 2010; Tocci 2007; Howorth 2005) by discussing different ways in which the EU acts as crisis manager, in terms that encompass more than the EU capacities developed under the CSDP. To this effect, we are mainly looking for Papers that cover policies and activities in civil protection, humanitarian aid, health security, as well as on how the EU responds to more pressing crises (refugees, economic crisis, etc.). In addition, we welcome theoretical Papers on Crisis Management as a branch of Political Science. Finally, we are interested in Papers analysing not only the EU, but also the dynamics EU-Member States and EU-other organisations’ approaches to Crisis Management. Panel ideas: 1. Changes, challenges, opportunities in Crisis Management after the Lisbon Treaty: How has Crisis Management changed after the Lisbon Treaty? Which are the main debates in the academia about these changes? Which new scenarios for the EU as crisis manager? Potential Chair: Magnus Ekengren, Associate Professor at the Swedish National Defence College 2. The EU as crisis manager in theory: How is Crisis Management defined within the EU? How is the understanding in other organisations and among EU member states? Can we consider Crisis Management as a branch of Political Science? Potential Chair: Joachim Koops, Research Professor for European Foreign and Security Policy at the Institute for European Studies and Dean Vesalius College Brussels (VUB) 3. The EU as crisis manager in practice I: Policies and activities within EU, such as civil protection, humanitarian aid, health security, economic crisis management, refugees, etc. Potential Chair: Mark Rhinard, Professor of International Relations in the Department of Economic History at Stockholm University 4. The EU as crisis manager in practice II: Comparing policies and activities between European Member States and the EU, as well as other international Organisation and the EU. Are they similar? Where do they differ? What can the EU learn from Member States/other International Organisations and vice versa? Potential Chair: Gustavo Gayger Müller, Postdoctoral Assistant Centre for European Studies Leuven