CSDP Missions: Addressing their Limited Reform Impact
The CSDP missions in Ukraine, Kosovo, and Iraq operate from the right diagnosis of the need to strengthen the security sectors and the rule of law, argues Henrik Larsen in this CSS Analysis. However, their limited impact so far raises questions as to whether the EU is able to increase the missions’ leverage in the host countries and thereby facilitate the desired reforms.
The development of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) started in the early 2000s with peace and police missions in Africa and the Western Balkans, under what was then known as the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). To date, the EU has deployed 36 CSDP/ESDP missions around the world, of which 17 are still active (6 military and 11 civilian, see map). Non-members such as Switzerland also have the possibility of seconding personnel. The CSDP missions function as crisis response tools with the purpose of fostering stability in Europe’s immediate or wider periphery. Their functional range spans military training, naval operations, peacekeeping, and capacity building of security sectors, including borders, as well as monitoring.