The changing character of EUFOR Althea: power politics or learning?

Trineke Palm

doi:10.1080/09557571.2016.1256947

Abstract

States have different strategic cultures when it comes to legitimating the use of military force and its relation with other foreign policy instruments. However, increasingly, military operations are conducted in multilateral forums; EU military operations are one of the most notable examples of this development. While some claim that these operations reflect power relations between nations with different strategic cultures, others argue that these common missions involve states in a process of collective learning and convergence of interests. Drawing upon an advocacy coalition approach, this paper confronts the competing hypotheses in the case of European Union Force (EUFOR) Althea in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), as the EU’s longest running military operation (since 2004). On the basis of policy documents and semi-structured interviews with policymakers and politicians, this paper concludes that the evolution of EUFOR Althea has been primarily the result of the power politics of different coalitions, but there have also been a few instances of learning.

Highlights

How and why have EU military operations changed? Does ten years of EU military operations reflect a process of collective learning? Or has it primarily been driven by the power politics of particular coalitions? This debate is of great importance as the EU’s collective use of military force is closely related to the debate on the identity of the EU as international security actor
The question, is whether we find in the evolution of European Union Force (EUFOR) Althea evidence that a process of collective learning has taken place or whether any shifts in the mission are best explained in terms of power politics
From the start of the operation, the Euro-Atlanticist coalition, which favours an activist use of the military instrument, was able to put its mark on the EUFOR Althea

Summary

Introduction

This debate is of great importance as the EU’s collective use of military force is closely related to the debate on the identity of the EU as international security actor. Does ten years of EU military operations reflect a process of collective learning? It helps in assessing the potential for the further development of the EU as an international security actor. Since 2003, the EU has launched eleven military operations as part of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). When the EU still was an actor without military power, it received many labels, like ‘civilian power’ and ‘normative power’ (Duchêne 1972; Manners 2002).

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Discussion

Conclusion