Resilience in EU crisis interventions in Ukraine: A complexity perspective

The resilience approach has recently emerged as a new topic of EU foreign policy debates and research. This paper adopts a complexity theory perspective to analyze the operationalization of the resilience approach in the EU response to crisis in Ukraine during 2014-2021. Building upon this theory, this paper distinguishes between resilience-as-quality of a complex system and resilience-as-thinking about a complex system. The empirical analysis focuses on the complexity features of non-linearity and self-organizing localization of EU interventions undertaken in the framework of the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP). It concludes that the emerging system of intervention displays some complexity qualities, yet the EU crisis response follows the linear and top-down logic embedded in the project-based practices

Contending metaphors of the European Union as a global actor: Norms and power in the European discourse on multilateralism

The legitimacy crisis that existing institutions of global governance are undergoing has led the European Union (EU) to place the idea of “effective multilateralism” at the heart of its foreign policy doctrine. This article draws inspiration from debates on the notion of power in International Relations to expose the normative dilemmas behind multilateralism in EU foreign policy. To do this, the article systematically analyses the metaphors on the EU’s role in global governance that are present in political speeches that address the question of multilateralism during the period 2004 to 2011. This analysis shows that the most sedimented metaphor on the EU’s role as a promoter of multilateralism – the EU as MODEL – is precisely the one that entails the most serious normative concerns from the perspective of the ideal traits of multilateralism described in the literature

New developments in the European neighbourhood policy:Ignoring the problems

This article provides a brief outline of the main developments that affected the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) structure in 2008 and 2009, considering both the Eastern Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean. This analysis makes it clear that both new initiatives originated in a desire to distance the progress of the European Union (EU)'s relations with the Eastern European non-members and with the Mediterranean countries from the framework of the ENP, securing a positive change in the EU's engagement with the neighbourhood which the ENP failed to ensure. Although both attempts were not successful, the need to address the drawbacks of the new construct involving the ENP and the two new initiatives unable to solve any outstanding problems is absolutely clear. The article concludes with a call to reform the essence of the ENP which should replace the current approach of adding new layers of policy on top of the existing structures of unsound performance. A serious rethinking of the ENP is urgently required. Comparative European Politics (2011) 9, 581-595. doi:10.1057/cep.2011.18; published online 11 July 201

Ukraine in the European Union’s partnership policy: a case of institutionalized ambiguity

The relations between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine have been predominantly explained in the light of the European Neighbourhood Policy that ascribes a central role to political conditionality. This analytical approach, however, overlooks the fact that since the 1990s, the EU has been developing a partnership policy that needs to be taken into consideration. This partnership policy was enshrined in the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement and the EU Common Strategy towards Ukraine in 1999, and with the advent of the twenty-first century came to incorporate differentiated elements, notably the growing politico-diplomatic alignment within the realm of Common Foreign and Security Policy and a tangible participation in Common Security and Defence Policy missions. While these features have ascribed the country a distinctive status, neither of the parties has hitherto engaged in formalizing a strategic partnership. Against this backdrop, this article attempts to explain this somewhat paradoxical situation by teasing out and discussing the evolution of the cooperation between the EU and Ukraine which is informed by a complex institutional and legal design. It argues that two decades of bilateral relationship have engendered an ambiguous partnership, given the necessity felt by the EU to give the upper hand to an intergovernmentally driven ‘Russia-first policy’, while accommodating Kiev's ambitions to become a EU full-fledged member.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia(PTDC/CPJ-CPO/11325/2009)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio