ABSTRACT
A Secure World Under the heading of ‘effective multilateralism’, the Strategy aims to implement the comprehensive approach at the global level. As in the Neighbourhood Policy, the emphasis is on long-term prevention through the combination of partnership and support in order to promote reforms, but rather than ‘leading from the front’ itself, as it proposes to do towards its neighbours, the EU will primarily act through the UN and other multilateral institutions and regimes. The central position of the UN is reflected in its place in the text of the Strategy, where it now comes first, contrary to the first draft. ‘Effective multilateralism’ is perhaps the phrase that best expresses the Strategy’s overall approach. It is a global objective, both functionally and geographically, that concerns the world system itself: ‘the development of a stronger international society, well functioning international institutions and a rulebased international order’. The other two broad objectives outlined in the Strategy are implied in ‘effective multilateralism’: ‘building security in our neighbourhood’ amounts to the application of the same principles at the regional level, while ‘addressing the threats’ demands a number of immediate politico-military measures, but cannot succeed if not part of a comprehensive root causes approach.
