The European Union and United Nations on the International Crisis Management Question: Collaboration Scenarios

During the last decade, the growing needs in the area of maintaining international peace & security have led the United Nations to resort more & more frequently to regional bodies, as provided for in Chapter VIII of the Charter. At the same time, the European Union has endowed itself with new capabilities, both civilian & military, in the framework of its security & defense policy for international crisis management. The confluence of these two factors has led to a relationship of collaboration that began to provide concrete benefits in 2003 with the deployment by the EU of its first crisis management missions in support of the UN, first in the Balkans & immediately afterwards in Africa. This relationship was formalized in September of that same year by means of a Joint Declaration signed in New York by both organizations. The aim of this paper is to offer a critical analysis of this phenomenon, based on the study of its foundations, but also attempting to evaluate above all its real effectiveness in the different scenarios & under the different models in which it has manifested itself until now. Specifically, it is an attempt to go beyond official discourse on the almost natural complementarity of these two organizations in this context, to try to reveal the authentic meaning & scope of the relationship they have established, as well as its future perspectives. Adapted from the source document.