Preface

This Special Issue of West European Politics represents an effort to establish how and to what extent the European Union has emerged as an agent of collective securitisation capable of shaping the national security agenda and policies of its member states. An EU Commission-funded workshop enabled the editors and contributors to discuss the concept of collective securitisation as it applied to the EU. That workshop, Governing the European Security Space: The EU as an Agent of Collective Securitization (17–18 October 2016), was held under the aegis of the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence (‘The European Union in World Politics: What Power? What Leadership? A Multidisciplinary Approach’, Punto Europa Forlì, University of Bologna – EU Commission, Erasmus + – Jean Monnet Activities, Grant NUMBER 2014-1406, 2014–2017). The guest editors would like to thank the several external reviewers for their constructive and comprehensive comments on drafts of the articles included in this Special Issue. James Sperling would like to acknowledge his debt of gratitude to Patrizia Brigidi, Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bologna, for providing an intellectually stimulating environment during his time as a senior fellow at the institute. Sonia Lucarelli would like to thank Giuliana Laschi for involving her in the Jean Monnet project from which this joint effort took its initial idea, and to acknowledge that part of her research for this publication was developed in the context of the research project Reconsidering European Contributions to Global Justice (GLOBUS) (Horizon 2020, 2016–2020).