Student Network for Human Security (SNHS) Blog

Abstract : In the past five years the European Union has developed
the capacity and willingness to intervene in difficult and dangerous
locations, to deal with crises, to improve the chances of people to
lead peaceful lives and to contribute to regional and international
security. This Report is about how the EU has built this global
security role so far, and where it should go next. The Barcelona
Report of 2004 declared that the most appropriate approach for
Europe in the twenty-first century would be to promote human
security. This Report spells out what a European Human Security
approach means, and addresses the criticisms levelled at it. It
looks at five cases where the EU has intervened to deal with
political violence and to rebuild societies torn apart by civil war,
and shows how a Human Security approach is relevant to those
operations. The Report concludes that in the wake of the Reform
Treaty and the `Global War on Terror' the EU should now define a
distinctive European Way of Security, based on Human Security
principles, which would enable it to intervene more effectively in
crises, and take forward its foreign and security policies in a way
which commands the support of its citizens and addresses the needs
of vulnerable communities. Human Security should provide a new
operating framework for European Union external action.