Is the European Union's Role as a Crisis Manager and Security Provider in Decline?
Capabilities, Expectations, and Realities in an Era of Geopolitics
Call for Papers: Open until July 22, 2026
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Call for Papers open until July 22, 2026 〰️
Over the past three decades, the European Union has sought to establish itself as a key player in international security, including in the areas of conflict prevention, crisis management, and peacebuilding. Academic research has focused on the EU’s role as a promoter of liberal values, democracy, economic interdependence, and institution-building through diplomacy, enlargement, development cooperation, and civilian missions and military operations under the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP). Scholars have also examined the EU’s effectiveness in peace mediation and post-conflict reconstruction in regions such as the Western Balkans, the Middle East, and Africa. Although assessments of the EU’s effectiveness and impact have varied, there has been a strong consensus in the literature that the EU has made significant contributions to the management of global crises and conflicts.
However, recent geopolitical developments have cast doubt on the future validity of this conclusion. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 marked a historic turning point for European security and challenged long-standing assumptions about peace on the continent. In light of the enormous financial pressure on national budgets and the simultaneous erosion of multilateralism, the scope for regional organizations such as the EU to make valuable contributions to addressing global crises may shrink. Moreover, the liberal peacebuilding approach that has traditionally guided the EU’s external action is increasingly being replaced by a different foreign policy paradigm—one that is more elite-centered, exclusive, and transactional at its core, and driven to a greater extent by national interests than by shared values.
These shifts raise the important question of what the erosion of the multilateral rules-based order, the fragmentation of transatlantic relations, and the emergence of a more conflict-ridden international environment mean for the EU’s ability to shape crisis management efforts worldwide.
The workshop aims to bring together scholars from the fields of European studies, international relations, security studies, and peace and conflict research to address several key questions:
To what extent and in what ways has the EU already adapted its capabilities and practices to changes in its international environment?
Can the EU remain a normative and peacebuilding actor while simultaneously becoming a geopolitical power?
How can the EU and its member states bridge the gap between ambitious policy rhetoric and actual operational practice in crisis management and peacebuilding?
What are the implications of the EU’s rearmament and rising defense spending on its ability to address conflicts around the world?
How does the evolving transatlantic relationship shape the future of the EU's crisis management efforts in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa?
We welcome contributions that focus on various fields of inquiry, such as:
CSDP missions and operations
EU military capacity-building assistance to external partners (including through the European Peace Facility)
EU peace mediation and preventive diplomacy
EU development cooperation and humanitarian aid
Institutionalization and decision-making in EU crisis management
Democratic accountability of EU crisis management policies
Effectiveness and impact of EU conflict management interventions
Partnerships with other security providers and international organizations
Paper proposals (of about 300 words) should be submitted by July 22, 2026 to Dr. Julian Bergmann (Julian.Bergmann@idos-research.de) and Dr. Iulian Romanyshyn (romanyshyn@ici-institute.de). We welcome paper proposals with diverse theoretical, methodological, and empirical approaches.
Since we plan to launch a collaborative publication project at a later stage, all paper proposals will undergo a rigorous selection process. Once selected, draft papers should be submitted by November 17, 2026.
The organizers will cover meals, transportation to and from Bonn, and accommodation costs for the selected participants.
