TY - JOUR

T1 - The Concept of'Resilience' in EU External Relations

T2 - A Critical Assessment

AU - Romanova, Tatiana

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands

PY - 2019/10

Y1 - 2019/10

N2 - The 2016 Global Strategy (GS) made resilience central to the European Union's (EU's) external activities. However, many aspects of resilience were ambiguous. Three of these aspects are identified in this article: whether resilience is about risks or resources, whether resilience means stability or change, and what is the role of values. These ambiguities created a space for the policy work of EU bureaucracy. This work is examined in development and neighbourhood fields, and in relations with Russia. Documents' analysis and semi-structured interviews reveal a difference in how three ambiguities were interpreted. Differences were identified among policy fields but not between EU institutions. These differences reflect the efforts of EU officials to preserve consistency in'their' fields. This policy work undermines one important goal for introducing resilience in the GS, the enhanced coherence of EU external activities. Finally, the study revealed that some interpretations moved closer to the theoretical writings on resilience compared with the GS.

AB - The 2016 Global Strategy (GS) made resilience central to the European Union's (EU's) external activities. However, many aspects of resilience were ambiguous. Three of these aspects are identified in this article: whether resilience is about risks or resources, whether resilience means stability or change, and what is the role of values. These ambiguities created a space for the policy work of EU bureaucracy. This work is examined in development and neighbourhood fields, and in relations with Russia. Documents' analysis and semi-structured interviews reveal a difference in how three ambiguities were interpreted. Differences were identified among policy fields but not between EU institutions. These differences reflect the efforts of EU officials to preserve consistency in'their' fields. This policy work undermines one important goal for introducing resilience in the GS, the enhanced coherence of EU external activities. Finally, the study revealed that some interpretations moved closer to the theoretical writings on resilience compared with the GS.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129904468&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.54648/EERR2019029

DO - 10.54648/EERR2019029

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85129904468

VL - 24

SP - 349

EP - 366

JO - European Foreign Affairs Review

JF - European Foreign Affairs Review

SN - 1384-6299

IS - 3

ER -