External Governance as Security Community Building

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was initially intended to create ‘a ring of friends surrounding the Union, from Morocco to Russia and the Black Sea’ (Prodi, 2002). Today, however, the ever-worsening security situation in the region clearly shows that the aim has not been achieved. With wars in Ukraine, Syria and Libya, the Union’s neighbourhood can therefore better be described as ‘a ring of fire’. Does this means that the policy has failed and that an alternative policy towards the EU’s neighbours is needed? Or should these developments be seen as temporary setbacks caused by external factors beyond EU control? By comparing the EU’s approach to its eastern and southern neighbours, this volume seeks to answer such overarching questions. The authors find that the EU still has a potential role to play in providing regional security, but that this role also risks being increasingly undermined if it does not increasingly take into account the broader geostrategic realities in both regions.

“This volume offers a unique perspective in examining the EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy as an instrument for building a regional security community. A particular strength of the book is its approach in using country case studies to offer a comparison of the security interrelationship with six of the EU’s southern and eastern neighbours. Its conclusions, on the risks that the EU faces in failing to play its full role in its region’s security, deserve to be read widely.” (Richard Whitman, Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, UK)

“The European Neighbourhood Policy is the EU’s most challenging and demanding external policy, with far-reaching strategic and political implications. It is also a policy in crisis. This book provides an invaluable analysis and explanation of the ENP, and includes both a wealth of empirical data and a clear theoretical focus. It deserves to be read widely by both academics and practitioners.” (Adrian G.V. Hyde-Price, Professor of International Politics, Gothenburg University, Sweden)

Pernille Rieker is Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affaris (NUPI), Norway, and holds a doctoral degree from the University of Oslo. Her research interests are related to international and regional security, European integration and external governance as well as national foreign and security policy with a special focus on the Nordic countries and France. She has published widely on these issues.