Anna Wiktorsson

Title: EU och militär krishantering – en regional eller global aktör?

School of Social Sciences

Political Science

Växjö University

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the role of the European Union as a military crisis manager. This will be done by providing a wider knowledge on the role of the European Union in crisis management, as well as clarifying its relationship with NATO and the UN. An understanding of how this theoretical framework functions in reality will be enhanced by providing examples from the completed operations in The Congo and Macedonia.

The questions to be answered in this study are as follows:

In what conflict situations does the EU use its military crisis management?

How does the military crisis management work within the EU?

What is the relationship between the European Union, NATO and UN in terms of military crisis management?

How did the EU contribute to the crisis management in Macedonia and The Congo, and what knowledge was gained from the experiences on these missions?

The methodology used in my thesis is an explanatory literature study. The results show that even though the goals outlined in the European Security Strategy have a high set of standards to provide military crisis management on the international scene, no guarantees to take action exists within the Union. Instead everything depends upon the decision making among the member states, as well as the availability of forces. Despite the experiences and the success of the EU-missions in The Congo and Macedonia there is still a long way to go to be capable of running full scale military crisis managements effectively.

Keywords: EU, military crisis management, peace building, peace keeping, peace enforcement.