Good intentions, mixed results – A conflict sensitive unpacking of the EU comprehensive approach to conflict and crisis mechanisms (EUNPACK)

By combining bottom–up perspectives with an institutional approach, EUNPACK will increase our understanding of how EU crisis responses function and are received on the ground in crisis areas.

This entails exploring local agencies and perceptions in target countries without losing sight of the EU’s institutions and their expectations and ambitions. It also entails examining the whole cycle of crisis, from pre-crisis, through crisis, and into post-crisis phase.

EUNPACK analyses two gaps in EU crisis response. First, the intentions–implementation gap, which relates to 1) the capacity to make decisions and respond with one voice and to deploy the necessary resources, 2) how these responses are implemented on the ground by various EU institutions and member states, and 3) how other actors – local and international – enhance or undermine the EU’s activities. Second, the project addresses the gap between the implementation of EU policies and approaches, and how these policies and approaches are received and perceived in target countries, what we refer to as the implementation–local reception/perceptions gap.

Our main hypothesis is that the severity of the two gaps is a decisive factor for the EU’s impacts on crisis management and thereby its ability to contribute more effectively to problem-solving on the ground. We analyse these gaps through cases that reflect the variation of EU crisis responses in three concentric areas surrounding the EU: the enlargement area (Kosovo, Serbia), the neighbourhood area (Ukraine, Libya), and the extended neighbourhood (Mali, Iraq, Afghanistan).

The results of our research will enable us to present policy recommendations fine-tuned to make the EU’s crisis response mechanisms more conflict and context sensitive, and thereby more efficient and sustainable.

See more information on the project's home page.

Publications

• EUNPACK: Highlights and recommendations
• REPORT: Executive Summary of the Final Report & Selected Policy Recommendations
• ACADEMIC ARTICLE: The limits of technocracy and local encounters: The European Union and peacebuilding
• ACADEMIC ARTICLE: Plugging the capability-expectations gap: towards effective, comprehensive and conflict-sensitive EU crisis response?
• ACADEMIC ARTICLE: Lessons to be learned from the EU Crisis Response in the Extended Neighbourhood: EU Security Sector Reform in Afghanistan, Iraq and Mali
• ACADEMIC ARTICLE: Approaching the European Union’s crisis response and international peacekeeping from below
• WORKING PAPER: EU policies towards Iraq
• WORKING PAPER: EU policies towards Afghanistan
• WORKING PAPER: EU policies towards Mali
• WORKING PAPER: Comparing the EU’s Output Effectiveness in the Cases of Afghanistan, Iraq and Mali
• WORKING PAPER: EU crisis response in Mali
• WORKING PAPER: The implementation of EU crisis response in Afghanistan
• WORKING PAPER: The implementation of EU crisis response in Iraq
• WORKING PAPER: The implementation of EU crisis response in Ukraine
• WORKING PAPER: The implementation of EU crisis response in Libya
• WORKING PAPER: The implementation of EU crisis response in Serbia and Kosovo
• POLICY BRIEF: Public Perceptions of the EU’s Role in Crisis Management in South Mitrovica
• POLICY BRIEF: Public Perceptions of the EU’s Role in Crisis Management in North Mitrovica
• POLICY BRIEF: A summary of perception studies in Ukraine
• POLICY BRIEF: Perceptions about the EU crisis response in Mali
• POLICY BRIEF: Perceptions about the EU’s Crisis Response in Libya
• POLICY BRIEF: Summarizing perception studies in Afghanistan
• POLICY BRIEF: Perceptions about the EU crisis response in Iraq
• WORKING PAPER: How the EU is facing crises in its neighbourhood: Evidence from Libya and Ukraine
• WORKING PAPER: The EU's Crisis Management in the Kosovo-Serbia crises
• REPORT: Best practices in EU crisis response and policy implementation
• REPORT: Understanding the EU's crisis response toolbox and decision-making processes

Blog posts

• Five paradoxes of the EU's crisis response
• 10 Racing Tips on NATO-EU Cooperation inside Iraq
• Is the EU ready to handle the major challenges it is facing?
• EUNPACK meets with the EU's Training Mission in Mali
• EUNPACK at the Belgrade Security Forum 2018
• EUNPACK at MERI Forum 2018: 'EU in the Middle East: Responsive Statehood to Prevent Violent Extremism'
• In memory of our friend and colleague Ambroise Dakouo
• Notes from Libya fieldwork
• Syria: Diplomacy in Disarray
• Workshop in Bamako, Mali
• Win the War, Lose the Peace?
• Challenges to crisis response and peacekeeping
• Good intentions - mixed results
• Back to square one: Egypt five years since Tahrir

European Café Debates and Policy Forums

• European Café debates: Afghanistan
• European Café debates: Libya
• European Café debates: Iraq
• European Café debates: Mali
• European Café debates: Serbia
• European Café debates: Kosovo
• European Café debates: Ukraine
• Second EU Crisis Response Policy Forum
• First EU Crisis Response Policy Forum

Newsletters

• Biannual Newsletter #5
• Biannual Newsletter #4
• Biannual Newsletter #3
• Biannual Newsletter #2
• Biannual Newsletter #1