The EU as a maritime security actor in the Mediterranean Sea

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This study analyses the EU’s potential as a strategically autonomous maritime security presence in the Mediterranean Sea. Against the backdrop of Europe’s changing external security environment, the EU has signalled its ambition to enhance its role as a global security presence in its latest strategies. Accordingly, this study undertakes a comparative analysis of the EU’s strategic approach to maritime security and defence on the one hand and its practical conduct in the case of Operation Sophia on the other. Analysing the EU’s degree of strategic autonomy in terms of its envisaged and actual capacity to act not only allows for a better understanding of the EU’s ambitions, but also reveals the problems the EU is facing on site, which may hamper the realisation of its potential in the sensitive area of CSDP.