A conflict sensitive EU approach to conflict and crisis in the Middle East

This panel - part of the 2016 annual MERI Forum - will present ongoing research conducted in the European Union Horizon 2020 project (EUNPACK). The main question is how and to what extent the EU crisis response has been designed to enable responses that are sensitive to the political and social context in the different crisis areas? The project takes a comprehensive approach that covers the whole crisis cycle, the full EU toolbox, and the EU ability to respond to different types of crisis in different regions. This allows analyses of the EU approach, how it is implemented and how EU crisis-management policies can be improved. The panel will focus on EU involvement and support to state-building, good governance and the rule of law, as well as the fight against IS and humanitarian assistance. Moreover, the EU’s political and economic dealings with non-state and sub-state actors such as the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) will be assessed. Chair: Athanasios Manis, Middle East Research Institute. Speakers: Morten Bøås, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway; Steven Blockmans, Centre for European Policy Studies, Belgium; Tine Gade, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway.