European Agents Out of Control?
Delegation and Agency in the Civil-military Crisis Management of the European Union 1999-2008
Description:... This dissertation argues that the European Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union exert significant influence on the formulation and implementation of European crisis management. Based on empirical data from 1999 to 2008, this study therefore challenges the common assumption that foreign affairs fall into the exclusive domain of the EU Member States. Indeed, both the Commission and, increasingly, the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU, led by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, strategically pursue their own preferences in this field. Characteristic conflicts between these institutions and the EU Member States (understood as 'vertical control'), and between the two institutions themselves ('horizontal control'), are identified and examined in two case studies on EU crisis management - in Macedonia, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The author draws on analytical concepts of principal-agent research and applies them in an innovative approach to the area of European foreign and security policy. Dissertation~
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