‘‘Civilian Power Europe’ and the Syrian Conflict’

European Foreign Affairs Review 24, no. 4 (2019): 469–490.

The Syrian war has entered its 8th year. This will however not be the focus of this article. Although an easy way to dismiss the existing ample critique of the role of the European Union (EU) institutions and its member states in that conflict would be to argue that it focuses on the wrong causes of the conflict, this study will present an analysis of why adopting the concept of “civilian power Europe” (CPE) will show that the way the EU has reacted to this conflict to date in the Syrian case offers a more accurate description.