Military operations and the EU’s identity as an international security actor

Ben Crum; Trineke Palm

doi:10.1080/09662839.2019.1667769

Military operations and the EU’s identity as an international security actor

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

For long, its lack of military means served to single the European Union out as a “civilian” or “normative power”. However, since 2003 twelve EU military operations have been launched. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of all EU military mission so far, this article seeks to establish how these missions have evolved over time and how they have affected the character of the EU as an international actor. For this purpose, the article outlines four ideal-typical conceptions of the EU's international identity and operationalises them along two underlying dimensions: justification (the purpose of military operations) and policy-embeddedness (the coordination between military means and other foreign policy instruments). Analysing the military operations along these two axes, the article suggests that the EU has been evolving towards a “Liberal Power” identity, as is reflected in a shift from value-based to utility-based justifications, while military operations have at the same time become more embedded in the EU's overall foreign policies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	513-534
Number of pages	22
Journal	European security
Volume	28
Issue number	4
Early online date	19 Sept 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2019.1667769
Publication status	Published - 2019

Funding

In contrast, once Operation Artemis started, all other EU foreign policy instruments were effectively made subservient to the military mission, regardless of the longer-standing EU involvement in the Great Lakes region. When briefing the Council on the various options for the intervention in Congo, the member states' ambassadors to the EU in COREPER underlined the need to explore possible political, diplomatic, financial and economic elements to support the military operation (Council of the EU ). This call was translated in the mandate as it subsumed the Commission engagement in Congo to the military operation by declaring “the intention of the Commission to direct, where appropriate, its action towards achieving the objectives of this Joint Action” (Council of the EU ). Specific suggestions were offered for Community avenues “in support of the Stabilisation Force” and for financial support to African partners participating in the peace-keeping operation (Council of the EU ). Notably, at the time of the military operation, the Commission was involved in supporting NGOs in Bunia to build capacity in the local police. However, there was no direct linkage of the military operation with civilian capacity building (Ulriksen et al. ). With regard to the EUSR for the Great Lakes Region, the Joint Action called for coordination “of the respective activities”, while refusing a more strategic role for the EUSR as was the case in Operation Concordia (Council of the EU ). These elements all indicate that Operation Artemis was not just an “isolated military endeavour” (Norheim-Martinsen ) but that it was in fact quite invasive of other forms of EU involvement. The operation put the military engagement at the centre and expected all Community and Commission measures to support it. This research was supported by a Research Talent Grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under Grant Number 406-11-027. We would like to thank Bart Bes, Wolfgang Wagner, Christoph Meijer and Judith Koning for their comments.

Funders	Funder number
European Commission
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	406-11-027

Keywords

Normative Power
justification
policy embeddedness
comprehensive approach
EU military missions

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1080/09662839.2019.1667769Licence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

Persistent URL (handle)

Copy link address

Cite this

@article{c29c48e8a055485d85c556edad8b0eca,

title = "Military operations and the EU{\textquoteright}s identity as an international security actor",

abstract = "For long, its lack of military means served to single the European Union out as a “civilian” or “normative power”. However, since 2003 twelve EU military operations have been launched. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of all EU military mission so far, this article seeks to establish how these missions have evolved over time and how they have affected the character of the EU as an international actor. For this purpose, the article outlines four ideal-typical conceptions of the EU's international identity and operationalises them along two underlying dimensions: justification (the purpose of military operations) and policy-embeddedness (the coordination between military means and other foreign policy instruments). Analysing the military operations along these two axes, the article suggests that the EU has been evolving towards a “Liberal Power” identity, as is reflected in a shift from value-based to utility-based justifications, while military operations have at the same time become more embedded in the EU's overall foreign policies.",

keywords = "Normative Power, justification, policy embeddedness, comprehensive approach, EU military missions",

author = "Ben Crum and Trineke Palm",

year = "2019",

doi = "10.1080/09662839.2019.1667769",

language = "English",

volume = "28",

pages = "513--534",

journal = "European security",

issn = "0966-2839",

publisher = "Taylor & Francis",

number = "4",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Military operations and the EU’s identity as an international security actor

AU - Crum, Ben

AU - Palm, Trineke

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - For long, its lack of military means served to single the European Union out as a “civilian” or “normative power”. However, since 2003 twelve EU military operations have been launched. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of all EU military mission so far, this article seeks to establish how these missions have evolved over time and how they have affected the character of the EU as an international actor. For this purpose, the article outlines four ideal-typical conceptions of the EU's international identity and operationalises them along two underlying dimensions: justification (the purpose of military operations) and policy-embeddedness (the coordination between military means and other foreign policy instruments). Analysing the military operations along these two axes, the article suggests that the EU has been evolving towards a “Liberal Power” identity, as is reflected in a shift from value-based to utility-based justifications, while military operations have at the same time become more embedded in the EU's overall foreign policies.

AB - For long, its lack of military means served to single the European Union out as a “civilian” or “normative power”. However, since 2003 twelve EU military operations have been launched. On the basis of a comprehensive analysis of all EU military mission so far, this article seeks to establish how these missions have evolved over time and how they have affected the character of the EU as an international actor. For this purpose, the article outlines four ideal-typical conceptions of the EU's international identity and operationalises them along two underlying dimensions: justification (the purpose of military operations) and policy-embeddedness (the coordination between military means and other foreign policy instruments). Analysing the military operations along these two axes, the article suggests that the EU has been evolving towards a “Liberal Power” identity, as is reflected in a shift from value-based to utility-based justifications, while military operations have at the same time become more embedded in the EU's overall foreign policies.

KW - Normative Power

KW - justification

KW - policy embeddedness

KW - comprehensive approach

KW - EU military missions

U2 - 10.1080/09662839.2019.1667769

DO - 10.1080/09662839.2019.1667769

M3 - Article

SN - 0966-2839

VL - 28

SP - 513

EP - 534

JO - European security

JF - European security

IS - 4

ER -

Military operations and the EU’s identity as an international security actor

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Persistent URL (handle)

Fingerprint

Cite this