№ 18 CAN THE EU REBUILD FAILING STATES? A REVIEW OF EUROPE’S CIVILIAN CAPACiTIES
№ 18 CAN THE EU REBUILD FAILING STATES? A REVIEW OF EUROPE’S CIVILIAN CAPACiTIES

Author(s): Daniel Korski, Richard Gowan, Jean-Marie Guéhenno
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Governance, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: ECFR European Council on Foreign Relations
Keywords: Failed State;
Summary/Abstract: In the next two decades, the persistent weakness of some states and regions may well prove a greater strategic challenge to the international community than the emergence of new powers like China. Having been in charge of UN peacekeeping for eight years, I believe we are not prepared to meet this challenge. We have been used to balancing power with power, but we are ill-equipped to deal with weakness: fragile states may require military deployments of peacekeepers, but strengthening them or managing their collapse requires much more complex strategies, drawing heavily on civilian capacities. One would expect the European Union, supposedly the civilian power par excellence, to be at the forefront of this effort, and certainly well ahead of the US, which has often been criticised for a Pentagon-dominated approach. Yet the Americans are fast learning the lessons of their difficulties in Iraq and Afghanistan, and energetically building their civilian capacities. The Europeans, despite having set themselves ambitious “civilian headline goals” in 2004, are at risk of being left behind. This report is severe on the performance of the EU as a “civilian power”. Tough love, perhaps. But the good news is that no group of countries in the world has more civilian capacity potential than the EU, and that opinion polls conducted across more than 50 countries find more support for a rise in the EU’s global influence than for any other major power. This is an extraordinary vote of confidence. Can Europe live up to it?

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