7/29/2019 In Defence of European Defence

1/2

European Union Institute for Security Studies1

Union europenne

European Union

In defence of european defence

* Daniel Keohane is a Senior Research Fellow at

the EU Institute for Security Studies

Ten years ago, few people could have predictedthat the EU would send ships to Somalia, police toAfghanistan, judges to Kosovo and soldiers to Chad.Yet, that is exactly what the EU has done. TheEuropean Security and Defence policy (ESDP) waslaunched shortly after NATOs war in Kosovo in 1999,to ensure that Europeans could respond to interna-tional crises without depending on the United States.The question is: has the EU succeeded?

Against a turbulent strategic backdrop of wars in Iraq

and Afghanistan, the ESDP has not generated manyinternational headlines except when there havebeen disagreements between governments, for ex-ample over the EU-NATO relationship. It has also be-come commonplace to associate ESDP with a failureto strengthen Europes military prowess. But a closerlook at EU operations shows it has been more suc-cessful than is often reported, not least because com-plex security challenges cannot be tackled using onlymilitary means.

Civil and military resourcesThe EU has initiated some 23 peace-support opera-tions in Europe, Africa and Asia since 2003, usingboth civil and military resources. NATO, in contrast,only has access to military means. Six of the 23 EUoperations have been military missions; the other17 have deployed police, border guards, monitors,judges, and administrators. Their tasks have includedcountering organised crime in Kosovo, reforming the

Congolese army, and monitoring the Rafah crossingpoint in Gaza.

Some EU operations have had impressive results.When the UN was unable to protect civilians frommilitias in Congo in 2003, an EU military interventionstopped mass atrocities in Ituri. The 2005 monitoring

mission in Aceh, Indonesia oversaw the implementa-tion of a peace agreement, ending 29 years of conictbetween Jakarta and rebel groups. The 2008 peace-keeping operation in Chad protected over 400,000 dis-placed persons and refugees eeing from the Darfurconict.

Most EU operations have taken place in its neigh-bourhood, namely the Balkans, the Caucasus, theMiddle East and Africa. This ts in with a strategic

Daniel

Keohane*December 2009

EU NAVFOR - ATALANTA: SPS Numancia and HLNMS Evertsen sailing together,

13 August 2009.

photo:

the

Council

of

the

European

Union

7/29/2019 In Defence of European Defence

2/2

European Union Institute for Security Studies2

trend. The US is stretched thin due to the wars in Iraqand Afghanistan, and its security priorities these daysare in the Middle East and Asia, not in the Balkans orAfrica.

True, EU operations have been relatively small in sizecompared with NATO and UN missions: the largestwas a 7,000-strong peacekeeping operation in Bosnia(which now numbers 2,200). But what if they had neverexisted in the rst place? The 2003 military operationin the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia helpedprevent a potential civil war in that country and costonly 6.2 million euros, compared with 4.3 billion eurosfor NATOs war in Kosovo. Plus EU operations arestarting to become larger and more challenging, suchas the 2008 deployments in Georgia (300 ceaseremonitors), Kosovo (2,000 police, judges and customs

ofcials) and Chad (3,700 soldiers).

A convergence of member state interests

EU missions have been most effective when there hasbeen a clear convergence of member state interests.The current EU monitoring mission in Georgia is a casein point. It was deployed only weeks after the August2008 war between Russia and Georgia, and shows

that the political determination of EU member statescan translate into a mission that makes a difference onthe ground. The rapid EU deployment ensured that theceasere between Georgia and Russia held when noother international actor could intervene.

The power of political will also explains the decisionto launch the current naval operation off the coast ofSomalia to ght piracy, protect trade routes and en-able the delivery of humanitarian aid. Over the lastyear the EU has deterred several pirate attacks andhanded over 68 pirates to the Kenyan authorities forprosecution, while 267,000 metric tonnes of food aid

have been delivered to Somalia under EU protection.

Of course, EU operations have sometimes experiencedreal difculties, such as a lack of qualied civilian per-sonnel or adequate military equipment. For example,EU governments have only sent 225 police out of 400authorised for their training mission in Afghanistan.It took a full six months for EU governments to ndonly 16 helicopters and 10 transport planes for theirpeacekeeping operation in Chad. Plus, from Congo toAfghanistan, the coordination of ESDP operations withother European efforts, such as aid projects managedby the European Commission or national programmesfor reforming local security forces, needs to improve.

An indispensable part of maintaining

international securityThe Lisbon treaty should help overcome some ofthese shortcomings. The external action serviceproposed in the treaty should join up the diplomaticand military power that the member states co-ordi-nate through the EU Council with the developmentassistance, state-building and reconstruction fundsof the European Commission. Plus, the new highrepresentative for EU foreign policy will be both avice-president of the Commission and chair the EUforeign ministers council. This should help ensure

that EU action really delivers results in difcult thea-tres, and that national policies are consistent withEU goals.

Ultimately, while the Lisbon reforms would help, thefuture success of ESDP will depend on the commit-ment of EU governments. They have much to buildupon. Compared with 1999, even sceptics are forcedto admit that ESDP has become an indispensable partof maintaining international security. As EU ofcial andstrategic thinker, Robert Cooper, has written: no EU op-eration has saved the world, but they have saved lives.Based on its rst decade, there is every reason to be-

lieve ESDP will be even more indispensable by 2019.

This analysis is an up-dated version of an article first published in NRC-Handelsbladon 18 November 2009