ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the nature of the European Union's (EU) foreign and security policy and its capacity and ability to deal with the consequences of ISIL's expansion in Syria and northern Iraq. The EU, with its 28 member states, is a collective organization, encompassing formal and informal associations both in the public and in the private spheres. EU foreign policy is capable of responding to events outside the EU under the mutually agreed principles of R2P when state and human security is seriously at risk. The EU's ability to respond to complex state- and human-security issues in the twenty-first century is, to a significant extent, a result of how the EU was formed and how the EU sees its place in the world as a soft-power organization. The EU has made a significant contribution to support efforts in dealing with the region's humanitarian crises, particularly in Lebanon and Jordan, but it still could do more.