Taking stock of the ‘Common’ in the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy

Pieper, MA

Abstract

This chapter takes stock of ‘the common’ in the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. It thereby asks to what extent common political visions exist that are the bedrock for common foreign policies. Doing so, the chapter analyses CFSP both in terms of institutions and substantive policies. Showing how EU foreign policies after the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty have partially been crafted without the necessary institutional consolidation, it sheds light on the many policy challenges that EU diplomacy is confronted with. The first policy challenge to CFSP that this chapter analyses by way of illustration is the implosion of governance structures in the European neighborhood in the wake of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ and the transnational war in Syria. At a time where CFSP was undergoing institutional sea changes, world political events caught EU foreign policy flat-footed to respond to crises unfolding at its doorstep. Such a gloomy finding is contrasted with a brief discussion of the EU’s foreign policy performance at the Iran nuclear talks, a case widely considered a ‘success story’ of EU diplomatic engagement. The chapter further discusses the impact of the ‘Ukraine crisis’ on both the EU’s foreign policy maneuverability and the perception thereof in other parts of the world. Likewise, the 2015 refugee crisis has become a stress test for common foreign policy responses, and will therefore be assessed in its impact on the perception of EU foreign policy. Its impact on EU foreign policy mechanisms will therefore also be assessed. Finally, this chapter also touches upon the Union’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) and its intricate interplay between NATO structures and EU autonomous defense instruments. The European Union’s credibility as a foreign policy actor, it will be argued, hinges on its ability to both formulate common strategies and policies internally, and to hold such policies up in the face of third parties in order to see such European foreign policies implemented beyond declaratory rhetoric.

Citation

Pieper, M. (2016). Taking stock of the ‘Common’ in the European Union’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. In J. de Zwaan, M. Lak, A. Makinwa, & P. Willems (Eds.), Governance and Security Issues of the European Union. Challenges Ahead (273-290). The Hague: Springer/Asser Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-144-9_15

• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2016
• Publication Date: Nov 11, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2016
• Pages: 273-290
• Book Title: Governance and Security Issues of the European Union. Challenges Ahead
• ISBN: 978-94-6265-143-2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-144-9_15
• Publisher URL: http://www.springer.com/de/book/9789462651432