A new report “Can the EU rebuild failing states? A review of Europes civilian capacities” concludes that broken promises from EU members on crisis missions risk more fragile states collapsing into failed states – thereby creating threatening hotspots in the Third World.
Such broken promises and wrongly treating Afghanistan, DR Congo and Iraq as if they were new Bosnias has left the EU without the capacity to prevent fragile states from becoming chaos-ridden and radicalized nations.
This is the main finding of the latest report from the British based “European Council on Foreign Relations” (ECFR), published Thursday.
According to one of authors of the report, (den danske sikkerhedsekspert, red.) Daniel Korski this could have dire consequences:
– If Yemen descends into full blown civil-war or al Qaeda gains new bases in Africa, the EU will be ill-equipped to offer the strategic and development assistance likely to be needed. Getting EU crisis missions right is essential in a world where stability in faraway places is key to security on the streets of Hamburg, Marseille, Copenhagen and Manchester.
Highlights from the report by ECFRs security experts Daniel Korski and Richard Gowan:
* EU member states break promises and significantly under-staff key international missions.
* No member state has deployed even half of what they promised in the 2004 Civilian Headline Goal process, and the EU has a shortage of 1.500 personnel across its 12 ongoing EU state building missions. All eyes are on Afghanistan: but the EUs police mission there is at half its authorised strength.
* Crisis missions still rely on the ‘Bosnia-template” (Bosnien-syndromet), ignoring reality on the ground in much bigger and complicated nations.
* The 2005-2006 mission to DR Congo, for instance, was rendered largely irrelevant because EU planning failed to take into account corruption and the countrys enormous size compared to Bosnia.
* Turf wars (skyttegravskrige) between the European Commission and the European Council weaken missions.
* In practice, spheres of influence overlap, leading to squabbles over who is responsible for what. In 2004 this led to a case at the European Court of Justice over who should get involved in a project tackling weapons trafficking in West Africa.
Fra rapportens indledning:
The European Union prides itself on being able to deal with fragile and failing states outside its borders, from Kosovo to Kabul, through what it believes to be its distinctive combination of “hard” power – coercion by military or other means – and “soft” power – persuasion through trade, diplomacy, aid and the spread of values.
The European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), launched in 1999, exemplifies the EUs commitment to the so-called comprehensive approach – a strategy that emphasises the importance of combining civilian and military tools when dealing with external security challenges.
IN PRACTICE, the EUs ability to project military power has been undermined by lack of investment and a weak security culture in most member states, but EU is said to make up for this through its so-called civilian power.
The EU is meant to be able to call upon almost 10.000 police officers and deploy them to faraway theatres, to exploit the expertise of more than 40.000 diplomats, to dip into the worlds largest development budget – and, critically, to ensure that its deployed civilians are able to work hand-inglove with military deployments, whether European or otherwise.
This is an essential element of power in a world where stability in Afghanistan, Yemen or Somalia is seen as key to security on the streets of European cities as well.
Man kan læse den tankevækkende rapport i sin helhed på
http://ecfr.eu/page/-/documents/civilian-crisis-report.pdf
