EUROPEAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REVIEW Law & Business AUSTIN BOSTON CHICAGO NEW YORK THE NETHERLANDS Published by: Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America by: Kluwer Law International Aspen Publishers, Inc. P.O. Box 316 7201 McKinney Circle 2400 AH Alphen aan den Rijn Frederick, MD 21704 The Netherlands USA In all other countries sold and distributed by: Turpin Distribution Services Stratton Business Park Pegasus Drive Biggleswade Bedfordshire SG18 8TQ United Kingdom ISSN 1384-6299 © 2009 Kluwer Law International BV 2010 (4 issues): Institutional: USD465.00 / EUR349.00 / GBP256.00 (print). Private: USD122.00 / EUR117.00 / GBP73.00 (print). (2009) 14 EFA Rev. should be used to cite this volume. This journal is available online at www.kluwerlaw.com. Sample copies and other information are available at www.kluwerlaw.com. For further information, please contact our sales department at +31 (0) 172 641562 or at [email protected]. For advertisement rates please contact our marketing department at +31 (0) 172 641525 (Marina Dordic) or at [email protected]. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the publishers. Permission to use this content must be obtained from the copyright owner. Please apply to: Wolters Kluwer Legal Permissions Department, 76 Ninth Avenue, 7th Floor, New York NY 10011-5201 United States. E-mail: [email protected]. AIMS EDITORS ADVISORY BOARD The aim of the Review is to consider the external posture of the European Union in its relations with Jörg Monar Dr Gianni Bonvicini the rest of the world. Therefore the Review will focus on the political, legal and economic aspects Professor of Contemporary European Studies, (Director, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome) of the Union’s external relations. The Review will function as an interdisciplinary medium for the Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex Professor Jacques Bourrinet understanding and analysis of foreign affairs issues which are of relevance to the European Union and (University Paul Cezanne (Aix Marseille III)) its Member States on the one hand and its international partners on the other. The Review will aim at Nanette Neuwahl Prof. Dr Günter Burghardt meeting the needs of both the academic and the practitioner. In doing so the Review will provide a Professor of European Law, Centre for Reasearch (Ambassador (Ret.)) public forum for the discussion and development of European external policy interests and strategies, in Public Law, University of Montreal Professor Marise Cremona adressing issues from the points of view of political science and policy-making, law or economics. (Department of Law, European University Institute, These issues should be discussed by authors drawn from around the world while maintaining a ASSOCIATE EDITOR Florence) European focus. Professor Christophe Hillion Professor Alan Dashwood Europa Institute, University of Leiden, (University of Cambridge) EDITORIAL POLICY The Netherlands Professor Sir David Edward The editors will consider for publication unsolicited manuscripts in English as well as commissioned (Judge of the Court of Justice of the EC, 1992–2004) articles. Authors should ensure that their contributions will be apparent also to readers outside their BOOK REVIEW EDITOR Dr Geoffrey Edwards specifi c expertise. Articles may deal with general policy questions as well as with more specialized topics. Professor Alasdair Blair (University of Cambridge) Articles will be subjected to a review procedure, and manuscripts will be edited, if necessary, to improve Department of International Professor Piet Eeckhout the effectiveness of communication. It is intended to establish and maintain a high standard in order Studies and Social Sciences (King s College London) to attain international recognition. Coventry University Lord Hannay of Chiswick George Eliot Building (House of Lords) SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS Coventry CV1 5FB, UK Professor Christopher Hill Manuscripts should be submitted to the Editorial Assistant at the Editorial Offi ce. The manuscript Tel: +44 (0)247-688-8014 (University of Cambridge) should be accompanied by a covering letter stating that the article has not been published, or submitted Fax: +44 (0)247-688-8679 Prof. Dr Horst G. Krenzler for publication, elsewhere. Authors are asked to submit two copies of their manuscript a well as a copy Email: [email protected] (Former Director-General External Relations on computer disk. Manuscripts should be 6,000-8,000 words and be typed, double spaced and with wide and Trade, European Commission) margins. The title of an article should begin with a word useful in indexing and information retrieval. BOOK REVIEW EDITOR Prof. Dr Josef Molsberger Short titles are invited for use as running heads. All footnotes should be numbered in sequential order, Professor Sven Biscop (Emeritus Professor of Economic Policy, as cited in the text, and should be typed double-spaced on a separate sheet. The author should submit EGMONT, Royal Institute University of Tübingen) a short biography of him or herself. for International Professor David O’Keefe Relations (IRRI-KIIB) (Founding Joint Editor) BOOK REVIEWS Rue de Namur 69 Dr Jacek Saryusz-Wolski Copies of books sent to the Editorial Assistant at the Editorial Offi ce will be considered for review. 1000 Brussels, Belgium (Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Tel: +32 (0)2-213-40-23 European Parliament) Fax: +32 (0)2-223-41-16 Ambassador Philippe de Schoutheete de Tervarent Email: [email protected] (Former Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of Belgium to the European Union) EDITORIAL OFFICE Professor Loukas Tsoukalis Saïd Hammamoun (University of Athens; President, Hellenic Center for Research in Public Law Foundation for European and Foreign Policy University of Montreal (ELIAMEP) C.P. 6128, Succursale Centre-ville Lord Wallace of Saltaire Montreal QC (House of Lords) Canada H3C 3J7 Professor Joseph H.H. Weiler Phone: +1 514 343-6111 # 2661 (New York University School of Law) Fax: +1 514 343-7508 Prof. Dr Wolfgang Wessels Email: [email protected] (University of Cologne) European Foreign Affairs Review 14: 457–477, 2009. © 2009 Kluwer Law International BV. EU and the Eastern Neighbourhood: Reluctant Involvement in Confl ict Resolution NICU POPESCU* Abstract. The article deals with the European Union (EU) policy toward the post-Soviet secessionist confl icts in Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. The article argues that, in order to understand the EU as a crisis management actor, one has to study not just the patterns of EU intervention in confl ict resolution and the impact of its actions but also EU decision not to intervene. These have a huge explanatory potential for the understanding of the EU as a foreign policy actor. Thus the article analyses in detail not just what the EU does vis-à-vis the post-Soviet secessionist confl icts but also what it failed to do. It analyses EU decisions to appoint special envoys, send civilian crisis management operations and offer assistance to the confl ict zones, but also draws lessons from EU’s refusal to consider the deployment of peacekeepers or the avoidance of confl ict resolution strategies, which might upset Russia. The article concludes that EU intervention in confl ict resolution is primarily driven by external constraints or opportunities rather than strategic design. When faced with a choice for possible intervention in confl ict settlement, the EU tends to opt for the easier, rather than the necessary, foreign policy measures and tends to work around the hard issues of confl ict resolution. I Introduction European integration was conceived in the 1950s largely as a confl ict resolu- tion exercise. Its means were economic, but the objective was political: to pacify Europe. As integration advanced and the potential for confl icts in Western Europe faded, the European Union’s (EU) concern with confl icts has became increasingly exteriorized. From the Balkans to the Middle East and from the South Caucasus to Western Sahara, the EU is encircled with confl icts that affect European security.1 The EU has little choice but to consider action. As one EU document puts it: ‘In its neighbourhood and beyond, the EU cannot confi ne itself to the economic and political spheres; it also needs to be able to guarantee stability, prevent confl icts and manage crises on its own doorstep.’2 But one can hardly dream of good governance * Nicu Popescu is research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, London offi ce. He holds a doctorate in International relations from the Central European University in Budapest. The author thanks Compagnia di San Paolo for supporting this research project under the European Foreign and Security Policies Studies grant. 1 European Security Strategy, 2003. 2 European Commission, ‘Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European 458 NICU POPESCU and functioning state institutions in the European neighbourhood when the poorest European states do not control signifi cant parts of their borders, where smuggling and corruption around the confl ict zones fl ourishes, security tensions periodically lead to shoot outs, neighbours such as Russia and Georgia engage in outright war, publics become increasingly radicalized, military escalation is not off the cards, and defence spending growth had been in double digits for most of the last decade. There is little the EU can do in the Eastern neighbourhood without stumbling on the secessionist confl icts in Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno- Karabakh. Contrary to a wide-spread notion, these confl icts are not ‘frozen’. Their settlement is. A better analogy of that of a frozen river: the ice on the surface may be apparently immobile, but, underneath it, currents continue to run.3 It is not surprising that after the launch of the European neighbourhood policy (ENP) in 2003, the EU has deployed an increasingly wide array of foreign policy instruments aimed at infl uencing confl ict resolution patterns in these confl ict areas.