Strategy Making in the European Union

This study analyzes the European Union’s approach to crisis management and compares the three most recent operations, EUFOR RD Congo, EUFOR Tchad/RCA, and EUNAVFOR Somalia, as case studies. It finds that the European Union has reached a common understanding of comprehensive security, but it has failed to develop and implement a truly integrated approach at the political and strategic level. The study identifies three decisive factors for the improvement of the EU’s comprehensive approach to security. First, the European Union needs a sound concept through which its plethora of civil and military tools could be seamlessly integrated and synchronized in a truly coherent approach. Second, the European Union could benefit from the establishment of a permanent Operation Headquarters providing the requested input from the very beginning of the comprehensive planning process. Third, the EU’s security and defense policy could become more coherent and capable if small groups of credible nations cooperated to offer leadership, perhaps in informal directorates. The key question in this respect remains whether and how the European Union can address the friction between the need for effective leadership on the one hand and the imperative of political legitimacy on the other.