Human security in EU strategy: reflecting on the experience of EUPM in Bosnia and Herzegovina and EULEX in Kosovo

Abstract

In the early 2000s, the EU incrementally appeared to have espoused a distinguishing human security discourse. This was bound not only to inform its crisis management operations but also to shape its global role. Today, the Union seems to move toward a global strategy blueprint and an ensuing public discourse. Human security is no longer mentioned as a grand objective, though it has not been moved to the background. It is cited as an end of one just component of EU global strategy. This article tries to map out how relevant EU texts speak about human security and highlights benchmarks in the cases of the European Union Police Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo. By focusing on the mandate and effects of these civilian missions, it finds that the Union has refrained from operationalising a human security perspective to direct them. Although it has not taken steps to internalize and turn human security into an overarching driver of its engagement, elements of human security advancement might be recorded.