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Book Review: Union Européenne et Sécurité: Aspects Internes et Externes (European Union and Security: Internal and External Aspects), by Catherine Flaesch-Mougin. (Brussels: Bruylant, 2009)

Book Review: Union Européenne et Sécurité: Aspects Internes et Externes (European Union and... European Foreign Affairs Review 15: 283­286, 2010. © 2010 Kluwer Law International BV. BOOK REVIEWS Catherine Flaesch-Mougin, Union Européenne et Sécurité: Aspects Internes et Externes [European Union and Security: Internal and External Aspects] (Brussels: Bruylant, 2009), ISBN 978-2-80272696-8 (pbk), EUR 50, 442 pp. This book delivers the output of `a reflection on the diverse declinations of the security concept within the European Union' (p. XVI) at a summer school organized by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Rennes (France) in 2007. As a collection of contributions and contemplations to the various workshops, it thus provides an ­ at first sight promising ­ overview of different aspects of security, not only within the EU's Common Foreign, Security and Defence Policy framework and its Area of Freedom, Security and Justice but also in the Community's policies. Since risks and threats are perceived to be everywhere, there is much ado about security. Or should we speak of safety? The latter is the translation of the French word securité in the short description of the book's content at the back cover. For starters, this makes one wonder whether these nouns are really so easily interchangeable synonyms as they appear. For example, food security is not the same as food safety. Besides that the question arises how the authors actually define security, since the book deals with issues like crisis management and consumer protection that look quite dissimilar at first sight. The title of the second chapter `the concept of security within the different dimensions of the EU' suggests that the reader might find an answer to this conceptual question there. Despite an interesting and well-elaborated piece on `the [legal] evolution of the imperatives of security within the Community's policies' (pp. 13­78) and, compared to the aforementioned, a rather short part on `the security concept in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice' (pp. 79­90), we were still puzzled about the meaning of security. The first comments that within the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) security constitutes `a language tool destined to avoid the use of more sensible terms like "defence" and "military" (p. 13), whereas the latter assumes that "the concept of internal security" doesn't really exists' (p.79). However, both authors do not work these assertions out. Except for the remark that within the EU's foreign, security, and defence framework `security is sometimes understood in a broad sense and another time in stricto sensu, namely defence and military means' (p. 96), this is also not the case in the paper on `the concept of security in the CFSP and European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)' (pp. 91­118). The author deals with security concepts (i.e., collective security, collective defence and cooperative security (p. 95)) rather than the concept of security itself. However, the book has more to offer than just an overview of the various appearances of security in the first, second, and third pillars of the EU (which are now eliminated by the Lisbon Treaty). The third chapter considers the delicate balance with regard to democratic principles and fundamental rights of citizens. Particularly, the sections about `the protection of personal data in the EU' (pp. 151­162) and the post-Lisbon legal framework for future agreements on Passenger Name Records (pp. 163­182) have drawn our attention to the fact that `the absence of a strong and adapted framework for the protection of personal data in the EU creates more and more problems' (p. 162). This results in an incoherent policy, with a set of ad hoc rules and a weakened position in negotiations with third countries like the United States. Chapter 4 deals with a set of internal policies: consumer protection, the concept of flexicurity, civil protection, and maritime safety. Although all of these separate contributions do offer a valuable, critical insight into the issues at stake, also for outsiders, this chapter misses conceptual coherence. Chapter 5 BOOK REVIEWS then is dedicated to external policies such as the EU's missions and operations abroad, the EU's external border management agency Frontex, and the energy security policy of the EU. This is probably the most interesting part of the book for the average reader of European Foreign Affairs Review. Especially, the sections on the `biography of EU's crisis management operations', the legal instruments involved (pp. 293­320), and on the role of Frontex (pp. 321­334) are enlightening. The first gives `evidence on the complexity and limits of the "proper legal framework" in which the CFSP develops, between the relative instability of the legal bases and frequent variation of solutions depending on the nature of the operation' (p. 319). The latter delivers a clear and stirring analysis of Frontex as `a community agency of intergovernmental cooperation' (p. 323) and as `a precursor to a European migration policy' (p. 328). Last but not least, the book has two conclusions, from an Member of European Parliament's (MEP's) (Roselyne Lefrançois) as well as an academic's (Inge Govaere, i.a. College of Europe) point of view. If you want to know to what fraction this (meanwhile former) French MEP belongs, you will have to look it up yourself because you will not find it in the book. Maybe a detail, but is this not relevant information? Anyhow, far more important is Govaere's statement that `a policy of security and securitization isn't always a bad thing' (p. 420). Particularly for political scientists who study foreign policy and adhere to the Copenhagen School's concept of desecuritization, this is intriguing. According to the notion of desecuritization, a policy will only be successful when a security issue is off the highly visible security agenda and back into the realm of low-profile day-to-day politics. Of course, we are dealing with a legal scholar who might not be familiar with this idea. Above all, she actually means that the EU needs a more common, coherent policy respecting the democratic principles, fundamental rights, and the rule of law and ends up expressing doubts if `this progressive securitization really is so safe and sound' (p. 421). In sum, the book does not really live up to the expectation that, as stated by the editor, it looks at `convergences between [divergent issues like], for example, maritime and consumer security, or health security and the CFSP' (pp. XVI­XVII). Why? Because it does not offer an overall umbrella definition of security nor a conceptual framework to analyse security and its multiple facets. This observation is acknowledged by Govaere. Though she refers primarily to the presentations during the summer school, she writes that `little has been said about the concept of "security" itself' (p. 410). Although the book succeeded to show that security is a puzzle with lots of pieces, it thus somehow failed to show how all the pieces fit into the puzzle. This is probably due to the fact that this book is not really edited in the sense that all contributors follow a similar analytical approach and prescribed structure. It is more a compilation of contributions `at will', which results in a mix of pieces, both in length and depth, some more appealing than others. Given the diverse topics of the book, the United Nation Development Programme's (UNDP's) multidimensional human security concept, for example, could have provided for a uniting binder to study the many faces of security throughout the blurring boundaries of the EU's internal and external affairs. However, it is certainly not the first book on the topic that lacks a definition or conceptualizing and it will not be the last. The meaning of security appears to be so obvious that only the lonely seem to feel the need to clarify this enigma. Björn Koopmans Institute for International and European Policy Key Member of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence ­ Network on `the EU, Foreign Policy and Global Governance' University of Leuven, Belgium http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png European Foreign Affairs Review Kluwer Law International

Book Review: Union Européenne et Sécurité: Aspects Internes et Externes (European Union and Security: Internal and External Aspects), by Catherine Flaesch-Mougin. (Brussels: Bruylant, 2009)

European Foreign Affairs Review , Volume 15 (2) – Apr 1, 2010

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Publisher
Kluwer Law International
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer Law International
ISSN
1384-6299
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Abstract

European Foreign Affairs Review 15: 283­286, 2010. © 2010 Kluwer Law International BV. BOOK REVIEWS Catherine Flaesch-Mougin, Union Européenne et Sécurité: Aspects Internes et Externes [European Union and Security: Internal and External Aspects] (Brussels: Bruylant, 2009), ISBN 978-2-80272696-8 (pbk), EUR 50, 442 pp. This book delivers the output of `a reflection on the diverse declinations of the security concept within the European Union' (p. XVI) at a summer school organized by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Rennes (France) in 2007. As a collection of contributions and contemplations to the various workshops, it thus provides an ­ at first sight promising ­ overview of different aspects of security, not only within the EU's Common Foreign, Security and Defence Policy framework and its Area of Freedom, Security and Justice but also in the Community's policies. Since risks and threats are perceived to be everywhere, there is much ado about security. Or should we speak of safety? The latter is the translation of the French word securité in the short description of the book's content at the back cover. For starters, this makes one wonder whether these nouns are really so easily interchangeable synonyms as they appear. For example, food security is not the same as food safety. Besides that the question arises how the authors actually define security, since the book deals with issues like crisis management and consumer protection that look quite dissimilar at first sight. The title of the second chapter `the concept of security within the different dimensions of the EU' suggests that the reader might find an answer to this conceptual question there. Despite an interesting and well-elaborated piece on `the [legal] evolution of the imperatives of security within the Community's policies' (pp. 13­78) and, compared to the aforementioned, a rather short part on `the security concept in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice' (pp. 79­90), we were still puzzled about the meaning of security. The first comments that within the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) security constitutes `a language tool destined to avoid the use of more sensible terms like "defence" and "military" (p. 13), whereas the latter assumes that "the concept of internal security" doesn't really exists' (p.79). However, both authors do not work these assertions out. Except for the remark that within the EU's foreign, security, and defence framework `security is sometimes understood in a broad sense and another time in stricto sensu, namely defence and military means' (p. 96), this is also not the case in the paper on `the concept of security in the CFSP and European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP)' (pp. 91­118). The author deals with security concepts (i.e., collective security, collective defence and cooperative security (p. 95)) rather than the concept of security itself. However, the book has more to offer than just an overview of the various appearances of security in the first, second, and third pillars of the EU (which are now eliminated by the Lisbon Treaty). The third chapter considers the delicate balance with regard to democratic principles and fundamental rights of citizens. Particularly, the sections about `the protection of personal data in the EU' (pp. 151­162) and the post-Lisbon legal framework for future agreements on Passenger Name Records (pp. 163­182) have drawn our attention to the fact that `the absence of a strong and adapted framework for the protection of personal data in the EU creates more and more problems' (p. 162). This results in an incoherent policy, with a set of ad hoc rules and a weakened position in negotiations with third countries like the United States. Chapter 4 deals with a set of internal policies: consumer protection, the concept of flexicurity, civil protection, and maritime safety. Although all of these separate contributions do offer a valuable, critical insight into the issues at stake, also for outsiders, this chapter misses conceptual coherence. Chapter 5 BOOK REVIEWS then is dedicated to external policies such as the EU's missions and operations abroad, the EU's external border management agency Frontex, and the energy security policy of the EU. This is probably the most interesting part of the book for the average reader of European Foreign Affairs Review. Especially, the sections on the `biography of EU's crisis management operations', the legal instruments involved (pp. 293­320), and on the role of Frontex (pp. 321­334) are enlightening. The first gives `evidence on the complexity and limits of the "proper legal framework" in which the CFSP develops, between the relative instability of the legal bases and frequent variation of solutions depending on the nature of the operation' (p. 319). The latter delivers a clear and stirring analysis of Frontex as `a community agency of intergovernmental cooperation' (p. 323) and as `a precursor to a European migration policy' (p. 328). Last but not least, the book has two conclusions, from an Member of European Parliament's (MEP's) (Roselyne Lefrançois) as well as an academic's (Inge Govaere, i.a. College of Europe) point of view. If you want to know to what fraction this (meanwhile former) French MEP belongs, you will have to look it up yourself because you will not find it in the book. Maybe a detail, but is this not relevant information? Anyhow, far more important is Govaere's statement that `a policy of security and securitization isn't always a bad thing' (p. 420). Particularly for political scientists who study foreign policy and adhere to the Copenhagen School's concept of desecuritization, this is intriguing. According to the notion of desecuritization, a policy will only be successful when a security issue is off the highly visible security agenda and back into the realm of low-profile day-to-day politics. Of course, we are dealing with a legal scholar who might not be familiar with this idea. Above all, she actually means that the EU needs a more common, coherent policy respecting the democratic principles, fundamental rights, and the rule of law and ends up expressing doubts if `this progressive securitization really is so safe and sound' (p. 421). In sum, the book does not really live up to the expectation that, as stated by the editor, it looks at `convergences between [divergent issues like], for example, maritime and consumer security, or health security and the CFSP' (pp. XVI­XVII). Why? Because it does not offer an overall umbrella definition of security nor a conceptual framework to analyse security and its multiple facets. This observation is acknowledged by Govaere. Though she refers primarily to the presentations during the summer school, she writes that `little has been said about the concept of "security" itself' (p. 410). Although the book succeeded to show that security is a puzzle with lots of pieces, it thus somehow failed to show how all the pieces fit into the puzzle. This is probably due to the fact that this book is not really edited in the sense that all contributors follow a similar analytical approach and prescribed structure. It is more a compilation of contributions `at will', which results in a mix of pieces, both in length and depth, some more appealing than others. Given the diverse topics of the book, the United Nation Development Programme's (UNDP's) multidimensional human security concept, for example, could have provided for a uniting binder to study the many faces of security throughout the blurring boundaries of the EU's internal and external affairs. However, it is certainly not the first book on the topic that lacks a definition or conceptualizing and it will not be the last. The meaning of security appears to be so obvious that only the lonely seem to feel the need to clarify this enigma. Björn Koopmans Institute for International and European Policy Key Member of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence ­ Network on `the EU, Foreign Policy and Global Governance' University of Leuven, Belgium

Journal

European Foreign Affairs ReviewKluwer Law International

Published: Apr 1, 2010

There are no references for this article.