Self-interests, values or rules, which one drives the EU’s CSDP missions?

Increasing global tensions, like those between the West and Russia constitute a change from the post-Cold War period. This means that it is ever more necessary for the member states of the European Union (EU) to collaborate on a global strategic level. Consequently, this makes the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CSDP) an even more significant field of policy than before. Notwithstanding, the CSDP is still a relatively new EU policy. As a result, it has been the subject of academic research since its conception in the late 2000s. Over the years there has been much academic debate on its decision-making-process, though until recently there was a lack of research with theoretical focus. The goal of this thesis is to utilise a congruence analysis to create more theoretical knowledge on this topic and increase the focus of the current academic debate. Three theories from the field of international relations, namely realism, constructivism and institutionalism, were chosen to serve as the theoretical framework of the analysis. A total of seven propositions were distilled from these theories and were analysed by means of a case study. This study used policy documents from decision-making processes surrounding the EUNAVFOR Atalanta and EUCAP Somalia missions to create data. These documents were gathered from a number of EU member states, who participated in these missions. Both took place in the same region and around the same time, which ensures a number of control variables. However, the difference between EUNAVFOR Atalanta being a military mission and EUCAP Somalia being a civilian one does allow this research to study both kinds of CSDP missions. Sensitising concepts, axial coding and selective coding were used for the coding. The codes were utilised to answer the propositions. The data indicated that the theory of institutionalism provides the most relevant explanation to the functioning of the decision-making process of the CSDP. This was shown in both cases. As a result, historical events, the institutional structure of the CSDP and path-dependency elements such as long-term policies impact the decision-making of the EU member states the most in these cases. This means that aspects such as veto right and long-term strategic frameworks should be considered by policy makers. Nevertheless, other theories influence this process as well, but to a lesser extent. As the current geopolitical situation seems to become ever more tense, the salience of the EU’s role as a guardian of Western values increases. In practice, this means more CSDP missions. These findings will provide some food for thought for those in favour of further streamlining the decisionmaking process of the CSDP. An example of this is the recommendation to implement Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) in the CSDP decision-making process. This would increase the EU’s role as an autonomous strategic actor on the global stage.