The EU security environment: Challenges and shifts / Resilience in the EU’s foreign and security policy

The EU security environment: Challenges and shifts:
Over the past few years, the world’s commitment to peace and its capacity to deal with evolving security challenges have been put to the test. The outcomes – an increasing number of refugees, an expanding network of terrorist organisations, some countries’ high dependency on international aid, and a relatively low level of respect for civil liberties around the world – demonstrate an urgent need for reflection and adaptation.

Authors: Christian Dietrich, Patryk Pawlak, Evarts Anosovs

Resilience in the EU's foreign and security policy:
The migratory pressure with which the European Union is struggling is yet more evidence that distance or the natural borders inherent in seas, mountains and deserts are of little significance when people are confronted with challenges like conflict, fragility or failure of governance. The scale of conflicts, natural hazards, water shortages and state collapse suggests that things will only get worse – unless a new policy paradigm is effectively implemented. Resilience – understood as the capacity of different layers of society to withstand, to adapt to, and to recover quickly from stresses and shocks – has gradually emerged as an answer to the growing complexity of the international security environment. In the EU context, the concept of resilience combines different policy areas: humanitarian aid, development assistance, disaster-risk reduction, climate-change adaptation, conflict prevention and peacebuilding. As a relatively new addition to EU jargon, the aim of building societal resilience still needs to be translated into tangible, practicable measures.

Author: Patryk Pawlak

ESO: Key Source: European Union Global Strategy http://www.europeansources.info/record/european-union-global-strategy/

EP: EPRS: Briefing, June 2016: Resilience in the EU's foreign and security policy http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2016/583828/EPRS_BRI(2016)583828_EN.pdf

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