The European Union as a Global Conflict Manager, by Richard Whitman and Stefan Wolff, eds

Abstract

Richard Whitman and Stefan Wolff, eds The European Union as a global conflict manager London: Routledge, 2012. 254pp, $39.95 (paper) ISBN 978-0-415-52872-6In recent years, European Union (EU), as an established regional institution, has taken steps to become a global actor in conflict management. EU foreign policy was first outlined in European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). After Treaty of Lisbon was adopted in 2007, policy was renamed Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) and developed a new focus on conflict prevention and management. The depth and effectiveness of this policy has become a topic of heated debate in international relations.The European Union as a Global Conflict Manager, edited by Richard Whitman and Stefan Wolff, contributes to debate on European foreign policy, notably conflict management, and provides an analytical framework to evaluate role to which EU now aspires. The book, consisting of 14 chapters, offers comprehensive analysis of European common foreign, security, and defence policy, and EU's capacity to manage conflicts in its immediate neighbourhood and globally. Empirical chapters provide thorough discussions of EU's mediation and peacebuilding efforts in Cyprus, sub-Saharan Africa, Israel-Palestine, Georgia, Afghanistan, Moldova, Bosnia and Elerzegovina, and Macedonia.The book also offers some thoughtful recommendations for EU policymakers. The institutional architecture introduced by Lisbon Treaty has enabled EU to develop an effective global conflict management strategy by bringing together instruments of EU's external action and by integrating its member states. The focus on global security management also fosters new cooperative avenues between EU and other regional actors such as Russia, Turkey, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Yet post-Lisbon experience shows that such an approach poses a major challenge to EU. The 28 operations conducted by EU since 2002 have not been framed under a common policy. Another challenge is limited scope of EU military engagements in light of cuts in military spending within member states.The book's introduction sets tone by correctly pointing out that existing theories on EU as a conflict manager fail to account for its successes and failures in specific interventions. The first part of book outlines conceptual perspectives on EU and its institutional nature as a global conflict manager. For instance, it discusses distinction between Europe as civilian power and Europe as military power.In second part, contributors explore seven cases of EU intervention. For example, Gorm Rye Olsen observes that three military missions launched by EU in Democratic Republic of Congo and Darfur reveal EU's capacity and political will to engage in conflict prevention and management in Africa. This policy focus, he notes, is strongly influenced by shared interests of Europe's former colonial powers-especially France and UK. In other cases, EU's room for manoeuvre is much more circumscribed. The EU's policy toward IsraeliPalestinian conflict is a case in point. Asaf Siniver argues that the EU displayed once more inherent inconsistencies between its rhetoric and actions (86). …