Multilevel EU Foreign & Security Policy
JOINT aims to bring analytical clarity to the complex system of governance involving EU and member states’ institutions that needs to be more joined-up for the EU to achieve policy outcomes in a challenging domestic and international context.
We conceptualise EU foreign & security policy as:
- Multi-actor. Member states pursue their objectives through EU institutions, in coordination with them, or through other international channels.
- Multi-sector. EU foreign & security policy is a constellation of actions across different policy areas, encompassing assets outside of the traditional remit of diplomacy and defence.
- Multi–layered. European modes of external engagement are incredibly variegated. The EU and its member states interact with local, regional and global external players at the bilateral, regional and multilateral levels as well as in formal and informal frameworks.
EU foreign & security policy has become a massively complex system of governance involving EU institutions and member states, encompassing policy areas outside the traditional remit of diplomacy and defence, and presiding over different forms of engagement with external players. Therefore, multiple possible arrangements exist – at the level of actors, policy sectors and formats of engagement – that could make EU policies more joined-up and ultimately effective.
Relevant Publications
- Pernille Rieker and Mathilde Tomine Eriksdatter Giske, “Conceptualising the Multi-Actor Character of EU(rope)’s Foreign Policy,” October 2021.
- Kristi Raik, “Not Yet Fit for the World: Piecemeal Buildup of EU Military, Cyber and Intelligence Assets,” November 2021.
- Kristina Kausch, “Collateral Damage: How EU Internal Policies Shape Crises and Conflict Abroad,” December 2021.
- Dylan Macchiarini Crosson et al., “Multi-Layered Actions? Sustaining Partnerships in the EU Integrated Approach to Conflicts and Crises,” January 2022.
- Riccardo Alcaro, Pol Bargués and Hylke Dijkstra, “A Joined-Up Union, a Stronger Europe. A Conceptual Framework to Investigate EU Foreign and Security Policy in a Complex and Contested World,” March 2022.