Can the EU do Strategy? Examining Means, Ends, Processes, and Practices in the EU Foreign and Security Policy

Abstract

In its most basic sense, strategy is about distributing and applying means to fulfil overarching ends. Such logical alignment seems largely absent when reviewing EU foreign policy practice or when assessing its effectiveness in international politics. The EU’s integrative purpose implies that process often matters as much (if not more) than outputs. Similarly, the collective setting of EU foreign policy-making sometimes leads ends to be kept vague or means to be applied without consideration for overarching ends. These structural constraints begs the question of whether the EU has, or can, act strategically, which appears particularly salient after the Ukraine crisis and in the context of the review of both the European Security Strategy and the European Neighbourhood Policy. This panel will address this question through a theoretical argument on the nature and possibilities of strategy in the EU foreign policy context and a combined empirical analysis of the processes by which the EU produces its guiding strategic document (i.e. review of the ESS and the ENP) and of the way it deploys its instruments on the ground (i.e. towards its Eastern Neighbourhood). The objective is to critically assess the relationships between means and ends and between processes and practices in EU foreign policy. Ultimately, based on these findings and reflections, the papers will also endeavour to provide some policy recommendations on the review of the two aforementioned documents and on a strategic implementation of EU foreign policy. This collective analytical endeavour will build on the work undertaken in the framework of the Dahrendorf Forum, a collaborative research project of London School of Economics and the Hertie School of Governance on the topic of EU external relations. The panel will review the ability and performance of the EU in ‘doing’ strategy. First, it will present some theoretical arguments on the nature and possibilities of strategy in the EU foreign policy context, using the Eastern Partnership and development policy as case studies. Second, it will look in details at the drafting process of the EU’s Global Strategy: how was the drafting process arranged, who was consulted at different stage of the process, has the outside-in perspective on the EU played a role, insofar were the member states involved in this task and what were their contributions, where were the differences between the national positions and eventually what is the outcome of the process. Ultimately, the goal of this panel is to formulate recommendations on the implementation of the EU’s Global Strategy.

Title	Details
Destructive Ambiguity, Unintended Power and Directability-Transformation Gap? How the Ukraine Crisis Leads to Rethink the EU as a Foreign Policy Actor	View Paper Details
Member States as Strategy-Maker or Strategy-Taker? In Search of Polish Footprints in the EU Global Strategy	View Paper Details
The EU and Russia since 2014: A Fortuitous Case of German Leadership and EU Strategy?	View Paper Details