| Can the EU Rebuild Failing States? A Review of Europe’s Civilian
Capacities
Korski, Daniel; Gowan, Richard
European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), October 2009, online edition, 99p
"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."
Daniel Korski joined the European Council on Foreign Relations as a Senior Policy Fellow in October 2007. Previously, he was a Senior Adviser in the U.S State Department, a position he was seconded to by the British Government. Richard Gowan is an Associate Director, Multilateral Diplomacy and a Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Go to the report at:
http://ecfr.3cdn.net/08e8648caa55523ceb_g2m6yhyrv.pdf
F12/05-09. Posted November 20, 2009
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