The Challenge of European Union Security Governance*

The central aim of this article is to explore whether or not the EU is an effective security actor. To assess the strengths and weaknesses of the EU, three security functions (conflict prevention, peace‐enforcement/peace‐keeping and peace‐building) and three core components of governance (co‐ordination, management and regulation) are applied. Security governance is seen as a helpful framework for studying the interactions between a diverse number of actors and for conceptualizing EU security policy‐making in a meaningful way.