The EU's Commitment to Effective Multilateralism in the Field of Security: Theory and Practice

Abstract

The European Security Strategy (ESS) 1 was released at a time when the credibility of the international security architecture had come under tremendous strain as a result of the 2003 Iraq war. The lead-up to the conflict had been characterised by an unprecedented divide between UN Member States who backed the US� position and those who believed concerted action should be subject to a UN Security Council (UNSC) mandate. Next to dividing the UNSC, EU Member States also firmly diverged on what action to take. The decision to go ahead without UNSC backing dealt a blow to the belief of achieving a multilateral solution to the �Iraq question� and with it threw the UN into one of its biggest crises to date. Several months after the invasion Former Secretary General Kofi Anan � speaking before the General Assembly � referred to a �fork in the road�, referring to the need for UN reform. 2 Early in 2010, the belief in the multilateral system seems to have been largely restored, not least spurred by the impact of the global financial crisis and the emergence of the G20 as a major forum for discussing global issues. The speeches delivered by EU and other world leaders at the 64th UN General Assembly (UNGA) made reference to a renewed belief in multilateralism as the preferred course of action to engage in true global governance in order to tackle these and other issues. 3 As for the EU, this commitment to multilateralism is nothing new. In fact, it has been a cardinal principle of EU external relations ever since the Union's inception. Manifold references to a commitment to multilateralism can be found both at treaty level and in EU policy documents. In recent years, the EU has stepped up the pace and developed its own �