Arjen Boin, Magnus Ekengren and Mark Rhinard, The EU as Crisis Manager: Patterns and Prospects, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
UI’s Mark Rhinard, together with colleagues Arjen Boin from the University of Utrecht and Magnus Ekengren from the Swedish National Defence College, has published a book discerning the EU’s crisis management capabilities. The book received the Hugo Raab-award from the Swedish National Defence College, conferred to research of particularly high quality.
Abstract: The European Union is increasingly being asked to manage crises inside and outside the Union. From terrorist attacks to financial crises, and natural disasters to international conflicts, many crises today generate pressures to collaborate across geographical and functional boundaries. What capacities does the EU have to manage such crises? Why and how have these capacities evolved? How do they work and are they effective? This book offers an holistic perspective on EU crisis management. It defines the crisis concept broadly and examines EU capacities across policy sectors, institutions and agencies. The authors describe the full range of EU crisis management capacities that can be used for internal and external crises. Using an institutionalization perspective, they explain how these different capacities evolved and have become institutionalized. This highly accessible volume illuminates a rarely examined and increasingly important area of European cooperation.
Björn Fägersten, Alessandro Marrone, Martín Ortega, and Roderick Parkes, Towards a European Global Strategy: Securing European Influence in a Changing World, EGS Project, 2013, available at: http://www.europeanglobalstrategy.eu/
Björn Fägersten (UI), together with Alessandro Marrone (IAI), Martín Ortega (RIE), and Roderick Parkes (PISM), colleagues within the European Global Strategy Project, published the report “Towards a Global European Strategy” in May 2013 with the aim to stimulate debate on the future direction of the European Union’s external relations. The report was the result of a year-long research project initiated by the Governments of Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden.
Abstract: The principal aims of the European Union are to promote its shared values, peace and the wellbeing of its peoples. Achieving these aspirations depends heavily on developments beyond its borders. On-going transformations at the global, regional and European levels create opportunities as well as challenges for the Union and demand strategic thinking on an ambitious and assertive external agenda. This report on a European global strategy offers guidance on this long-term endeavor. By deriving long-term interests from the EU’s principal aims, Europeans will be better able to live and act in accordance with their values. This report therefore identifies six preconditions, or vital European interests, for protecting Europe’s peace, well-being and shared values. In order to secure these vital interests, eleven strategic objectives are suggested along with the necessary adaptations to the EU’s existing toolbox.
Erik Brattberg and Mark Rhinard, Actorness and Effectiveness in International Disaster Relief: The European Union and United States in Comparative Perspective, International Relations, 2013, vol.27:3, pp. 356-374.
Abstract: This article examines the role of the European Union (EU) and United States as actors in international disaster relief. We take the analysis of ‘actorness’ one step further than normal by assessing the extent to which different aspects of EU and US actorness led to effectiveness in actual outcomes. In doing so, we make two contributions. First, we provide a rare comparison between EU and US foreign policy actorness, shedding light on the actor capability of each bloc in the area of international disaster relief. Second, we specify the relationship between actorness and effectiveness, a relationship which is too often assumed rather than explored. Using previous research of EU and US actorness as a starting point, we link four aspects of actorness to effectiveness and assess the resulting hypotheses using the case of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. We find support for our proposed links between actorness and effectiveness, although further research is needed before robust conclusions can be drawn.