Managing Transboundary Crises: The Emergence ofEuropeanUnion Capacity

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has modest but promising capacities to assist member states overwhelmed by disaster through its Civil Protection Mechanism.The EU also routinely sends civil and military missions to hotspots outside EU territory. But these capacities do not suffice in the face of transboundary crises: threats that cross geographical and policy borders within the Union. Examples include epidemics, financial crises, floods, and cyber terrorism. Nation states cannot cope with these threats without international collaboration. In this article, we explore the EU's efforts to develop transboundary crisis management capacities.We describe these budding capacities, explain their policy origins, and explore their future potential.

Understanding Compound, Interconnected, Interacting, and Cascading Risks: A Holistic Framework

“…It has also been shown that crises challenge the process of governance. They cross borders and involve many different aspects of society and the environment (Ansell, Boin, & Keller, ; Boin, Rhinard, & Ekengren, ; Galaz, Moberg, Olsson, Paglia, & Parker, ). On the other hand, global networks are becoming more interdependent and it is becoming harder to understand their vulnerabilities.…”

TheEU'sCommunityMechanism forCivilProtection: Analysing Its Development

“…In time, the Mechanism may become an executive space where states agree to delegate to the Commission the authority to manage major transboundary crises (cf. Ansell, Boin, & Keller, ; Nohrstedt, ; Zahariadis, ; Boin, Ekengren, & Rhinard, ).…”

The European Union's capacities for managing crises

“…Another literature implicated by this study is that on the institutional politics of the European Union. EU scholars have been slow to recognise the EU's role in crisis management (but see Wendling , Tercovich , Morsut, ; Boin, Rhinard, and Ekengren, ). Scholars tend to focus on traditional areas of EU cooperation: normally those boxed within easy to define policy sector areas.…”

“…A transboundary crisis compounds the previous crisis definition in that its origin, spread, and implications unfold across borders. The transboundary crisis can, in effect, cut through multiple types of borders: geographic, policy, political, cultural, language, and legal (Boin, Rhinard, and Ekengren, ). This is clearly an expansive view of crises, although the scholarly focus tends to fall on urgent, unfolding events in which a fast response is perceived as necessary.…”