Kontestacja wspólnej polityki bezpieczeństwa i obrony w Parlamencie Europejskim na przykładzie działań UE w Afganistanie w latach 2005-2013

Abstract

Contestation of the common foreign and security policy in European Parliament. The case of EU actions in Afghanistan in 2005‑2013

Foreign policy, including the security policy, has traditionally been considered a domain of the public policy, where lower standards of parliamentary democratic control and scrutiny can be employed. There is a belief among the policy‑makers, that in order to act effectively in this field, they should not be limited by the legislative power. This democratic deficit is even amplified on the international level, whenever an international organization is involved in implementing security policy. In spite of that fact, parliaments still retained the right to scrutinize security policies via debates, which reveal MPs approach towards state’s security policy. The main aim of this article is to analyze a case of democratic control over security policy on the international level, namely the security policy towards Afghanistan between 2005 and 2013 and its contestation in the European Parliament (EP). In order to do so a qualitative analysis of the plenary debates in the EP will be employed, which will reveal arguments used by the MEPs in order to justify certain policies, political claims directed to national and international institutions and contestation of the process of the formulation of the EU policy towards this particular security issue.