The European Union's Crisis Management After Lisbon: Addressing New Security Challenges in the 21st Century

Is the EU's post-Lisbon crisis management model adequate to tackle current international security challenges at both the strategic and the operational levels? The Lisbon Treaty has introduced a number of innovations in the field of the EU's crisis management which have the potential to reinvigorate the Union's security actorness, both as a norm setter (model by being) and an operational crisis manager (model by doing). This paper will investigate the prospects for the EU to become a credible security actor in the 21st century in connection with its capacity to: (1) adapt the conceptual framework of its crisis management system to the current security scenario; and (2) implement effective action on the ground. In particular, this analysis will take into consideration three main developments in the global security environment: (1) the rise of new security-political challenges; (2) the evolution of the concept of security; and (3) the proliferation of non-state actors in the field of security.

Revised version of a paper presented at the VI annual Conference of the Italian Standing Group on International Relations on "Regional Orders in the XXI Century", Trento, 20-22 June 2013.