Security Expertise in the European Union: The Challenges of Comprehensiveness and Accountability

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the role of expert knowledge for security political decision-making in the European Union. It observes that due to the pressures of an increasingly complex and uncertain security environment, the relevance of expert advice as an aid to political action has increased. After outlining the European Union's specific constellation of security experts and its ways of integrating expertise into its policy-making structure, the article discusses the ensuing limitations and constraints that affect EU security expertise. It contends that due to the fragmentation and opacity of the EU's security architecture, the EU faces a dual challenge of developing comprehensive and accountable forms of dealing with security expertise. Lastly, the article discusses ways of fostering comprehensive and accountable expert knowledge and points to difficult trade-offs between demands to integrate expertise and the requirement of maintaining pluralistic advice.