Opinion & Analysis

The EU’s preventive diplomacy

The EU’s approach to preventive diplomacy is embedded in a wider ambition to ‘preserve peace, prevent conflicts and strengthen international security’. Given deteriorating security and increasing geopolitical tensions worldwide, it is evident that preventive diplomacy requires sustained and enhanced attention by the EU. Regarded as a credible and reliable partner – as well as an international frontrunner in preventive diplomacy – the continued violence and conflict in Ukraine, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kosovo, and Israel/Palestine over the past few months, as well as increasing geopolitical tensions and competition, weakening multilateralism, and the complexity of violent geopolitical contexts worldwide prove that the EU must re-assert its commitment to preventive diplomacy. 

The recommendations contained in this analysis chart a path forward to address implementation gaps, provide greater political steer to the EU’s preventive engagement, contribute to the more effective use of this tool, and ensure it is more centrally positioned in an integrated approach to diplomacy. 

Read full paper at original link.

About the authors

Sean McGearty is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Edward Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention, Maynooth
University, Ireland

Dylan Macchiarini Crosson is a Researcher at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium

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