Is There a Pilot in Crisis Management? Expectations and Challenges of Coherence in External European Interventions

Through the example of the European Union’s response to the crisis in the Central African Republic, this chapter aims to grasp the more general issues of the division of labour in crisis management and the articulation between actors intervening in a plurality of sectors of international relations (political diplomacy, collective security, development, humanitarian aid), all of which are put under pressure by expectations of coordination, coherence, and integrated approach. The chapter shows that crisis managers are caught up in the dynamics of competitive cooperation for the control and allocation of public resources. The labelling of a situation as a “crisis” opens opportunities for action and claims while potentially raising intense coordination issues.