The European Union and Military Conflict Management: Defining, evaluating and achieving success

This book provides the first comprehensive review of the European Union’s role in military conflict management. As such it makes an important contribution to contemporary debates concerning the EU’s global role, not least in international security. Over the past decade the EU has launched five military operations within the framework of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) with the explicit purpose of helping to manage violent conflicts beyond its borders. This book argues that an appropriate framework for understanding the Union’s achievements in this regard does not yet exist. It therefore develops a definition and a set of criteria for ‘success’ in military conflict management. It subsequently applies these in a comparative case study of the military operations undertaken by the EU in Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic. Having evaluated their success individually as well as comparatively the book goes on to explore the conditions under which military conflict management operations conducted by international organizations like the EU can be successful. Finally it discusses the implications of its findings for the future theory and practice of military conflict management.