EUISS Chaillot Paper No. 152 (May 2019)

Healthy Boundaries: Remedies for Europe's cross-border disorder

Summary:

The migration crisis that engulfed Europe in 2015 highlighted the EU’s vulnerability when faced with major instability and disruption at its borders. Although the Union has internal and external security arms – comprising the ten home affairs agencies that underpin its Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), on the one hand, and the international missions undertaken under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) on the other – it still struggles to deploy these instruments effectively.

This Chaillot Paper examines how the EU, bearing in mind its evolution as a multinational bureaucratic organisation rather than a traditional state actor, can successfully develop meaningful security capabilities. It explores possible new formats for AFSJ-CSDP cooperation, outlining four options for joint deployment: ‘demar­cated’, ‘sequential’, ‘modular’ and ‘integrat­ed’. Stressing the importance of a clear-eyed diagnosis of the changes underway in the global security environment, the paper explores how these four joint security formats might be adapted to address crises with maximum effect.

Table of Contents:

• Ch 1 | The proposals
  • Formula 1: Deployments which are geographically demarcated
  • Formula 2: Deployments which are sequential
  • Formula 3: Deployments which are modular
  • Formula 4: Deployments which are fully integrated
• Ch 2 | The proposals, reviewed
  • The task: reality-checking the four proposals
• Ch 3 | The political will, cemented
  • The task: to align the EU's capabilities with its interests
• Ch 4 | The problem, rethought
  • The task: to properly understand the security situation
• Conclusion: A long future for EU security policy?
  • Strategy as a game of chance
  • 2020: double vision

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