Application of the European Union's human security approach to the European Union Monitoring Mission to Georgia

Abstract

This Master’s thesis explores the way in which human security agenda has found its way into the security practices of an emerging security actor, the European Union (EU). In this context, while the work introduces the human security concept in the realm of the EU, in particular in the framework of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM Georgia) is being examined as a case where human security is put in practice. Thesis puts forward a set of three interrelated questions: Firstly, whether human security approach was followed by the EU in EUMM Georgia and secondly, how it was implemented. For this purpose, the six principles of human security, defined by Madrid Report of 2007 will be scrutinized and will be used as an indicator to measure practical implementation of the EU human security approach on the ground, in case of EUMM Georgia. And thirdly, it goes on to explore what was the rationale for the EU to opt for this approach. In order to account for this latter, the thesis applies both Constructivist and Rationalist theories along the human security concept in the framework of the EU’s CSDP, and argues that it is the combination of rationalist calculation and considerations of appropriateness that leads the EU to adopt a human security approach in CSDP, in this case in EUMM Georgia.