A COHERENT AND EFFECTİVE FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLİCY FOR THE EUROPEAN UNİON? : THE CASES OF THE YUGOSLAV CRİSİS AND THE IRAQ CRİSİS

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to investigate the coherence and effectiveness of the European Union’s foreign and security policy. It seeks to find answers to three main questions: how coherent is the EU in conducting its foreign and security policy?; Is coherence an essential criterion for the effectiveness of the EU’s foreign and security policy?; Does incoherence undermine the EU’s effectiveness as a foreign and security policy actor? This article seeks to find answers to these questions by focusing on two empirical case-studies, the Yugoslav crisis in early 1990s and the Iraq crisis in 2003, in which the EU Member States had acted unilaterally and incoherently and consequently undermined the Union’s effectiveness and international credibility as a foreign and security policy actor. The main argument of this article is that in order to make the EU a credible and effective foreign and security policy actor in global politics, the EU Member States have to recognize the fact that they ought to act collectively as a coherent actor and speak with one voice. Their influence on prominent international issues will be greater if they act collectively as a coherent actor rather than acting individually, and they should sacrifice their individual national interests for the sake of common interests of the EU. The EU Member States’ solo diplomacy and their diverging voices undermined the effectiveness and international credibility of the EU as observed in two case-studies.