EU foreign and security policy: contestations and challenges

The end of the Cold War has profoundly changed security environment as well as global politics, with new actors emerged in the new political and economic situation. Created by the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, EU foreign and security policy allows the European Union to act as an international actor. This process would, however, be limited due to a lack of political will and strategic clarity by EU member states. Indeed, its role on the international scene as a political actor differs from traditional powers, in the realistic or neorealist sense of the term, because the European army, long been proposed was never realized. The Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, in December 2009, has been seen as crucial step to ensure coherence among EU member states as well as consistency in EU foreign and security policy, but, its international position is extremely affected by the new era of multipolar competition. The aim of this paper is to argue that EU foreign and security policy remains weak and unable to address, collectively, regional and international security crisis and the failures of EU intervention during recent international crises has shown the lack of unity towards strategic autonomy in a rapidly changing world