The European External Action Service and the security-development nexus: organizing for effectiveness or incoherence?

The creation of a new European External Action Service' (EEAS) under the Treaty of Lisbon represents one of the most far-reaching attempts to reform European Union (EU) foreign policy institutions in the history of European integration. However, the process of organizing the EEAS has involved more top-down' political interference rather than the more bottom-up' codification of existing procedures that typically takes place in the reform of EU foreign policy institutions. This trend can be framed in terms of three conflicts: a clash of intergovernmental politics over the structure and staffing of the EEAS; a clash of bureaucratic politics among the major institutions involved in European foreign policy; and a clash of priorities between two major EU foreign policy goals: development and security policy. These conflicts call into question whether the EEAS will improve the coherence of EU foreign/security policy, as it was intended, or simply add more confusion to the EU's global presence.