EUNPACK has been designed and developed to critically examine whether EU external crisis response is sensitive to the political and social context on the ground. In order to achieve this the project takes a holistic approach that covers the whole crisis cycle, the full EU toolbox, and the EU’s ability to respond to crises in different types of regions (e.g. Enlargement Area, ENP Area and Extended neighbourhood). This allows us to provide analyses of the EU's comprehensive approach - the method of choice in external action - and how it is implemented in the field; to undertake a comparative analysis of the Union’s approach to crisis in different regional contexts; and thereby identify lessons learnt to suggest how EU crisis management institutions and policies can be improved.
EUNPACK – EU External Crisis Response Analysis
Victor Stein 
The project
The EU is one of the world’s most frequently studied international institutions. However, what is lacking is systematic, in-depth analysis of the EU crisis response mechanisms in specific target countries and how these mechanisms are received and perceived on the ground, not just by governments and elites, but also by different groups of people. This is important as the EU’s activities resonate differently with different groups of the population. The main objective of EUNPACK is therefore to unpack EU crisis reponse mechanisms in order to provide new insights that can increase our understanding of how crisis reponse functions and is received on the ground in target countries, and how it can be improved.
By introducing a bottom-up perspective combined with an institutional approach, we will be able to explore local agencies and perceptions in target countries without losing sight of the EU’s institutions and their expectations and ambitions. This allows EUNPACK to analyse the full cycle of dynamic events, from EU intentions, motivations and subsequent implementation, to local actors’ perceptions and reactions, and back again to EU intentions and understanding. This will be achieved through the employment of a mixed-methods approach that combines desk research and fieldwork, including surveys, perception studies and in-depth interviews.
In line with is grounded approach to research, EUNPACK will collect primary empirical data with a focus on practices rather than mandates, focusing on how the EU is seen as an operating actor in crisis response by target states and audiences. The cases studies in EUNPACK are selected on the basis of a range of challenges that the EU addresses (different types of crisis and different levels of crises) and the variation in policy frameworks and instruments employed to respond to these challenges. Our project will therefore study the EU’s crisis response mechanisms in the policy realms of enlargement (Kosovo and Serbia), neighbourhood (Ukraine and Libya) and the extended neighbourhood (Mali, Afghanistan and Iraq).
Objectives
The main objective of this project is to unpack EU crisis response practices and thereby be able to provide knowledge about the current EU crisis response that both will increase our knowledge about how crisis response functions and how it can be improved. By introducing a bottom up perspective combined with an institutional approach, this project breaks with the dominant scholarship on EU crisis response that only tend to see one side of the equation. Such an approach will enable us to explore local agencies and perceptions in target countries without loosing sight of the EU’s institutions and their expectations and ambitions and allows us to analyze the full cycle of dynamic events; from EU's intentions, motivations and subsequent implementation, to local actors' perceptions and reactions, and back again to EU intentions and understanding.
Thus, as our project will be attentive to the local level in target countries as well as to the EU level and the connections between these levels our approach is neither completely bottom up, nor top-down, but designed to use a bottom-up approach in combination with an institutional approach.
The main research questions of EUNPACK are therefore the following:
- To what extent is there a mismatch between the intentions of the EU’s comprehensive crisis approach and its implementation in the different target countries covered by this study?
- How does the EU crisis response policy resonate with local ownership? Is it marked by a mismatch, and if so to what extent and regarding which dimensions of policy-making?
- If there is a mismatch, what are the main explanations for this mismatch? We will examine whether it is (among others) due to:
- a lack of local ownership, in terms of problem definitions, local preferences (and internal conflicts), appropriateness of policy responses?
- a lack of a positive EU reputation/image and legitimacy possibly impinging on local ownership?
- a lack of resources?
- insufficient internal or external coordination?
- a lack of conflict sensitivity and a deficient analysis of the problems at hand by the EU?
- How and to what extent is conflict sensitivity taken into account in the different phases of the Union’s crisis response and at the different levels (both in Brussels and in the field)?
- Based on this, to what extent is the comprehensive approach possible to succeed in its current form? And what kind of changes might be required?
The project will examine these research questions both at the EU-level and in the field with the ambition to identify some degree of impact and lessons learnt. We will examine both how the EU is IMPLEMENTING its approach to crises/conflicts in PRACTICE and what are the constraining factors for implementation of a comprehensive approach.
Victor Stein
Author at Eunpack
Victor Stein studies complex information and turns it into clear, structured insights for readers.
Leon Hartmann
Editor at Eunpack
Leon Hartmann oversees the editorial quality of all published content, ensuring accuracy, coherence, and balance in every article.