EU-LISTCO investigates the challenges posed to European foreign policy by identifying risks connected to areas of limited statehood and contested orders. Through the analysis of the EU Global Strategy and Europe’s foreign policy instruments, the project assesses how the preparedness of the EU and its member states can be strengthened to better anticipate, prevent and respond to threats of governance breakdown and to foster resilience in Europe’s neighbourhoods.
Continuous knowledge exchange between researchers and foreign policy practitioners is at the cornerstone of EU-LISTCO. Since the project’s inception, a consortium of fourteen leading universities and think tanks works together to develop policy recommendations for the EU’s external action toolbox, in close coordination with European decision-makers.
The project is being funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and will run from March 2018 through February 2021.
What are areas of limited statehood and contested orders?
Areas of limited statehood and contested orders are at the origin of the most pressing global and regional challenges for EU security.
Areas of limited statehood
Central government authorities and institutions are too weak to set and enforce the rule of law and/or do not control the monopoly over the means of violence. Areas of limited statehood are a pervasive feature of Europe’s geostrategic environment: there is hardly a country among its neighbouring states without such regions.
Contested Orders
State and non-state actors challenge the norms, principles, and rules that societies and political systems are based on. A certain degree of contestation and politicization is constitutive; however, security risks increase when contestation cannot be contained and when it assumes hostile and violent features.