Introduction: one-and-a-half cheers for the EU Global Strategy

ABSTRACT

EU High Representative Federica Mogherini presented her EU Global Strategy (EUGS) in June 2016. Encircled by security crises, it is difficult to think of something more important for Europe than collective action with the aim of weathering the storm. The EUGS, in this respect, seeks to define common ends and identify means. So what do we make of the EUGS? What does the EUGS tell us about the current role of the EU in global affairs? And how will the withdrawal of the UK from the EU affect foreign and security policy? As a way of introduction to the forum, this article notes that the EUGS focuses on the neighbourhood, puts the interests of European citizens first, identifies civilian means, and has created momentum on security policy. The key question, however, remains whether there is any interest in the EUGS beyond the foreign policy elites.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• foreign policy
• security policy
• strategy
• EU Global Strategy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Hylke Dijkstra is the Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Security Policy. He is also an Assistant Professor (with tenure) at the Department of Political Science of Maastricht University, The Netherlands. He was previously a Marie Curie Fellow at the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford, where he was also affiliated with Nuffield College. He has published widely on EU security, NATO and UN peacekeeping.

ORCID

Hylke Dijkstra http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3637-5296

Notes

1. Nathalie Tocci, ‘The Making of the EU Global Strategy’, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 37, No. 3 (2016), this issue.

2. Ibid.

3. European External Action Service, European Global Strategy: Shared Vision, Common Action, A Stronger Europe: A Global Strategy for the European Union's Foreign and Security Policy (Brussels: EEAS, June 2016), p. 7, http://eeas.europa.eu/top_stories/pdf/eugs_review_web.pdf (accessed 10 September 2016).

4. Jolyon Howorth, ‘EU Global Strategy in a Changing World: Brussels' Approach to the Emerging Powers’, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 37, No. 3 (2016), this issue.

5. Resilience is a key phrase in the EUGS. It is more ambitious than ‘stabilization’, but a step down from the previous liberal peacebuilding ambitions. See Wolfgang Wagner and Rosanne Anholt, ‘Resilience as the EU Global Strategy’s new leitmotif: Pragmatic, problematic or promising?’, Contemporary Security Policy, Vol. 37, No 3 (2016), this issue.

6. European External Action Service, European Global Strategy (note 3), p. 9.

7. Ibid., p. 8.

8. ‘In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests and contribute to the protection of its citizens. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights, in particular the rights of the child, as well as to the strict observance and the development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter.’ Article 3(5) Treaty on European Union.

9. European External Action Service, European Global Strategy (note 3), p. 20.

10. Bruno Waterfield, ‘EU army plans kept secret from voters’, The Times, 27 May 2016, http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/eu-army-plans-kept-secret-from-voters-3j3kg3zwj; also Tocci, ‘The Making of the EU Global Strategy’ (note 1).

11. Joint Declaration issued at the British-French Summit, Saint-Malo, 3–4 December 1998, Article 2.

12. Ibid., Article 3.

13. Daniel Keohane, ‘EU Defense, Where Political Opportunity Meets Strategic Necessity’, Carnegie Europe, 15 September 2016, http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=64584 (accessed 21 September 2016).

14. ‘A strong Europe in a world of uncertainties’, Joint contribution by the French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Europa/Aktuell/160624-BM-AM-FRA_ST.html (accessed 21 September 2016).

15. Ibid.