TITLE:
Concepts in the European Union’s Policy Area of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding
AUTHORS:
Nikolay Pavlov
KEYWORDS:
Concept Analysis, Conceptual History, European Union (EU), Conflict Prevention, Peacebuilding, Peace Concepts
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Political Science,
Vol.13 No.3,
July
7,
2023
ABSTRACT: The paper examines concepts
and their role in the European Union (EU)’s policy
area of conflict prevention and peacebuilding from the theoretical perspective of conceptual history and the “ideational turn” in public
policy research. It argues that EU conflict prevention and peacebuilding could be
interpreted as a concept development process
in which concepts are the “building blocks”. The concept analysis outlines
four types of EU peace concepts: strategic, mission (operational), bureaucratic
and military concepts. Internally, concepts have an integration role for the EU
in the predominantly intergovernmental area of conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
Externally, peace concepts could be regarded as a specific resource and a unique
“brand” of the EU on the international market of peacebuilding ideas.