European Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy Operations in the Mediterranean: Missions Impossible

Maja Kovačević

Abstract

Arab Spring, Libyan crisis and subsequent explosion of migration created ‘perfect storm’ for the European Union (EU), challenging the EU as security actor. This research apply Christopher Hill’s capability-expectations gap concept on the CSDP, more specifically to the EU’s response to the crisis in the Mediterranean, focusing on two aspects. One is the (in)capacity to reach a collective
decision, as demonstrated in the EU’s response to Libyan crisis 2011. Second aspect is related to the ambitions of the EU’s crisis management, focusing on high expectations raised by the EU itself by defining overambitious and unrealistic mandates for three CSDP missions in the Mediterranean: EUFOR Lybia, EUBAM Lybia and EUNAVFOR MED. The main thesis of this article is that the
EU’s actions as security actor in the Mediterranean represents a major setback for the CSDP, leading to the disillusion when it comes to the EU’s capabilities of providing security in its own neighborhood.

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