Who Cares? The Relevance of EU Crisis Cooperation for EU Scholars

Abstract

A curious development is underway in the process of European integration. The European Union, long accustomed to taking decisions that lead to slow, incremental steps towards common policies, is being asked to take urgent, decisive steps during extreme events. In contrast to the early years of the EU, today hardly a day passes without a news report of EU involvement in what might generically be called a ‘crisis’: a possible pandemic, a major cross-border flood, a cyber-attack, a looming energy shortage, a civil war, a chemical spill, a volcanic eruption, or, of late, a debt-driven financial breakdown. These are all very different kinds of events and the EU’s involvement varies. However, they conform to the generic definition of a crisis as an unexpected, acute disruption to normal societal functions that must be handled quickly and under conditions of uncertainty (Rosenthal et al., 1991). A crisis is intriguing — from a scholarly perspective — because it shines a spotlight on the governance capability of a political-administrative system. It reveals a system’s coordination capacity, leadership arrangements, power sharing potential, communication effectiveness, and degree of legitimacy in the eyes of citizens. The EU is increasingly being asked to tackle crises according to this definition on a fairly regular basis and is developing capacities to do so (Boin et al., 2013). Not only does this development offer an intriguing angle into which to view the EU’s civil security governance as highlighted by this book, but it also suggests a rich vein of research agendas and theoretical development opportunities for scholars.