Conflict Management and the Future of EU Foreign and Security Policy: Relational Power Europe

This book analyses how the European Union (EU) has dealt with crises and conflicts, including Russias invasion of Ukraine, Irans nuclear dispute, and Syrias civil war, to understand the peculiar nature of its role in international security. Rather than focusing on the institutional set-up of the EUs foreign and security policy, the authors look at the outer world, concentrating on crises and conflicts impinging on Europes security. They argue that the EU and its member states policies are constrained by systemic factors such as acute geopolitical rivalries and the fragmentation of regional governance systems, as well as by multi-source internal contestation of policies across member states. Hence, building on pragmatist-informed analysis they show that the EUs actorness in international security is first and foremost constituted by interactions with its domestic and systemic context, and as such it should be understood as a relational power.

This volume will be of great use to scholars and students of International Relations, European Studies, Security, Conflict and Peace Studies, and Diplomacy Studies seeking to deepen their understanding of the subject.