Concepts in the European Union's Policy Area of Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding

The paper examines concepts and their role in the European Union (EU)’s policy area of conflict prevention and peacebuilding from the theoretical perspective of conceptual history and the ‘ideational turn’ in public policy research. It argues that EU conflict prevention and peacebuilding could be interpreted as a concept development process in which concepts are the ‘building blocks’. The concept analysis outlines four types of EU peace concepts: strategic, mission (operational), bureaucratic and military concepts. Internally, concepts have an integration role for the EU in the predominantly intergovernmental area of conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Externally, peace concepts could be regarded as a specific resource and a unique ‘brand’ of the EU on the international market of peacebuilding ideas.