European Agents out of Control?

The book argues that the European Commission and the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union exert significant influences 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 and 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.

Dr. Nadia Klein is a research associate at the Jean Monnet Chair for Political Science at the University of Cologne.