Comparative paper on how to reduce impact of multipolar competition on EUFSP

The paper will identify the unexploited potential for an enhanced and more sustainable performance of the EU in external crisis management and conflict resolution. It sets the task of formulating actionable policy recommendations geared towards reconciling within a single discursive framework the two prevailing motives in this debate – the EU as a pillar of the multilateral order and the EU as a global ‘pole’, in that it connects the need for stronger security, defence and crisis management assets to the EU’s core interests in cooperative regional orders and a rules-based international system. The paper will identify the possible arrangements – at the level of coordinating objectives, integrating instruments, and making external engagements more complementary – that EU institutions and member states could agree on to reduce the impact of multipolar competition on the effectiveness of EU foreign, security and defence policy and enhance its strategic autonomy.