The EU and its Balkan Entanglements (PDF)

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, London School of Economics (Department of International Relations), language: English, abstract: The Balkan wars of the 1990s and NATO's military intervention in Kosovo at the end of the past decade can be seen as two major catalysts which have triggered various readjustments within the EU's system of foreign policy-making.

Materially, the EU has been forced to reshape its relations with the countries of South-Eastern Europe, but it has also adapted its post-Cold War foreign policy tools more generally. In terms of overall political strategies, the adoption of new security doctrines (such as the Petersberg tasks) and the implementation of peace-building initiatives for the Western Balkans (such as the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe or the joint police mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina) have been widely acknowledged as both internal and external successes for the EU.

Institutionally, the member states have demonstrated a commitment to reinforce their visibility and influence in world politics by establishing the position of a High Representative for the CFSP, a Political and Security Committee (PSC) and a Policy Planning and Early Warning Unit. It was also recognised that restricting CFSP to an adhoc arrangement of informal or reactive policies would not be sufficient if the EU's declared ambition to become a significant international actor was to be taken seriously.

Still, it might well be argued that CFSP experienced a considerable boost only after other actors had criticised the EU's seeming complacence and self-limitation to the role of a 'paymaster' in international security affairs. Partly as a reaction to the mistakes made between 1991 and 1995, a specifically 'European' approach to preventing and managing security crises appears to have emerged. Ultimately, the EU has learnt a lot from its Balkan entanglements.

In this essay, I will first trace back member states' different convictions as to how the resurgence of nationalist conflict and outbreak of violence in Croatia and Bosnia should be tackled. Secondly, I will outline how these experiences have led the EU to adapt its traditional policies conducted within Pillar One to the objective of developing a more cohesive CFSP within Pillar Two. Some lessons which have not yet been translated into policy changes will be discussed as well. Based on these insights, I will conclude that the EU has generally been successful in turning its past failure into a future potential, although a number of problems remain.