Introduction

From ambition to reality Since the launch of the first police mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2003, European Union (EU) crisis missions have been deployed with increasing frequency and geographical scope. The launch of an EU Monitoring Mission to Georgia in response to the crisis in August 2008 and the antipiracy operation EU NAVFOR (Operation Atalanta) off the Somali coast represent the latest manifestations of the EU’s growing role in international security. At the same time, conflict prevention, a key component in EU foreign policy (Smith 2003), has increasingly been streamlined with other policy areas, including development policies. This gives the EU a wide range of political, economic and military instruments to undertake conflict prevention and crisis management policies beyond its borders. Clearly, efforts to realize the EU’s ambition to turn itself into a security provider both for its own citizens, but also in pursuit of its foreign policy goals are bearing fruit.