The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy

This book accounts for transformations in the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)during fifteen years of operations (2001-2016), and argues that the EU evolved into a softer and more civilian security provider, rather than a military one. This learning process was driven by transnational communities of experts and practitioners, which acted as engines of change. Giovanni Faleg analyses two innovative concepts introduced in the EU security discourse since the late 1990s: security sector reform (SSR) and civilian crisis management (CCM). Both stem from a new understanding of security, involving the development of non-military approaches and a comprehensive approach to crisis management. However, the implementation of the two policy frameworks by the EU led to very different outcomes. The book explains this variation by exploring the pathways by which ideas turn into policies, and by comparing the transformational power of epistemic communities and communities of practice. <

• CSDP
• European Union
• Communities of practice
• Epistemic communities
• EU comprehensive approach
• civilian crisis management
• security sector reform
• security-development nexus
• peacebuilding
• CSDP operations
• border management
• norm diffusion
• european union politics

 “This book offers a highly sophisticated analysis of how institutions create change – through ideas and learning. It is a major theoretical contribution, based on impeccable empirical research, to the literature on “learning communities”. Faleg’s focus on the civilian dimension of CSDP breaks important new ground.” (Professor Jolyon Howorth, Yale University, USA)

“As a relative newcomer to the European project, the CSDP offers the perfect test case to analyse the development of a policy area through the structured interaction between practitioners and experts. Faleg provides a much awaited and insightful account of that evolution, analysing in depth the theory and practice of a rapidly evolving policy field in European integration.” (Nathalie Tocci, Deputy Director of Istituto Affari Internazionali, Italy)

“Just when I thought there was nothing left to learn about CSDP, Giovanni Faleg surprised me with a most sophisticated analysis of CSDP as a learning organization, which will prove highly informative to academics and practitioners alike.” (Professor Sven Biscop, The Royal Institute for International Relations, Belgium)  

• Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium

  Giovanni Faleg

Giovanni Faleg is Consultant for the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, USA, and a Researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels, Belgium. He holds a Ph.D. in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science (2014). He co-authored the report “More Union in European Defence” of a CEPS Task Force chaired by Javier Solana (2015). 

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