Abstract
This article draws on a comprehensive new data set of crisis management capacities at the European Union level to highlight key patterns in their development and use. Organised within the categories of detection, sense‐making, decision‐making, coordination, meaning‐making, communication, and accountability, the data show considerable accumulation of capacities in detection and sense‐making, while decision‐making capacities lag behind. We find that most capacities are sector‐oriented rather than cross‐sectoral, and reside primarily within the European Commission rather than other EU institutions. Comparing the data to previous studies, we note that capacities overall are increasing and some are undergoing evolution; for example, horizon‐scanning tools once limited to collecting information have increasingly been given an analytical, “information enrichment” function akin to sense‐making.
Highlights
In recent years, much research attention has shifted to the nature and implications of “transboundary” crises (Ansell, Boin, & Keller, 2010; Boin, Ekengren, & Rhinard, 2014b).1 A crisis is traditionally defined as a shared perception of threat to a fundamental part or value of a society, which requires urgent action by authorities under conditions of deep uncertainty (Rosenthal, Charles, & `t Hart, 1989; Rosenthal, Charles, et al, 1989)
Why should we study transboundary crisis management, and more why in the EU political setting? Answering this question directs our attention to two kinds of literature
The EU has developed railway electromagnetic attack detection sensors through the ‘SECRET’-project,5 and the air subsector has a monitoring system called the Network Operations Portal (NOP), which allows users to react to events faster, monitor performance, and report functionality
Summary
Much research attention has shifted to the nature and implications of “transboundary” crises (Ansell, Boin, & Keller, 2010; Boin, Ekengren, & Rhinard, 2014b). A crisis is traditionally defined as a shared perception of threat to a fundamental part or value of a society, which requires urgent action by authorities under conditions of deep uncertainty (Rosenthal, Charles, & `t Hart, 1989; Rosenthal, Charles, et al, 1989). A transboundary crisis compounds the previous crisis definition in that its origin, spread, and implications unfold across borders. The transboundary crisis can, in effect, cut through multiple types of borders: geographic, policy, political, cultural, language, and legal (Boin, Rhinard, and Ekengren, 2014). This is clearly an expansive view of crises, the scholarly focus tends to fall on urgent, unfolding events in which a fast response is perceived as necessary. The prototypical transboundary crises are intertwined with increasingly complex critical infrastructures and freeflowing forces linked to globalisation, and would include cyber breakdowns, the spread of pandemics, and massive migration flows
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