How to Reduce the Impact of Internal Contestation, Regional Fragmentation and Multipolar Competition on EU Foreign and Security Policy Sarah van Bentum, Caterina Bedin, Zachary Paikin, Gregor Walter-Drop, Steven Blockmans, Agnès Levallois and Tiffany Guendouz, (autores) [Recurso electrónico]

Bibliografía: p. 42-45

EU Foreign and Security Policy (EUFSP) is a critical component for shaping the Union’s role in the international arena. While the EU is often depicted as a single entity, it is in fact a composite foreign policy player. Indeed, the fact that it has grown in size and complexity and now consists of 27 member states has influenced its ability to develop and implement a coherent foreign policy, which has become increasingly challenging. Constraining factors, in particular (1) internal
contestation, (2) regional fragmentation and (3) multipolar competition have emerged as significant obstacles to the EU’s ability to respond to international conflict and crises effectively. Although these factors are not entirely new, their mutually reinforcing nature and the greater intensity with which they present themselves makes their analysis of their impact on foreign and security policies particularly important.

Internal contestation describes a condition that hampers EU member states consensus due to diverse – sometimes conflicting – domestic interests that reflect back on international policies.1 As a result, the EU struggles to develop a unified approach to foreign policy issues, leading to inconsistent and sometimes contradictory positions or even blockages, e.g., between different EU institutions and/or certain member states. Internal contestation thus adversely affects the
decision-making processes for reaching a common EU foreign policy, which can prolong and worsen international crises and conflicts and leads to the EU losing ground with respect to other international actors.