Judging from the political priorities in Berlin, Rome or any other European capital these days, you’d think that migration control and border management are the only important issues facing policymakers. Everywhere you look, more and more policy tools are being used to “fight” or solve problems related to migration, with some repurposed for the task.
The same has been true for the European Union in recent years. In Brussels, this trend can be traced back to the summer of 2016, when the EU published its updated doctrine for defense and security policy, called the European Union Global Strategy. The doctrine attempted to realign those policies more clearly with the internal security interests of EU member states.
It would of course be naïve to say that EU foreign policy was never influenced by the interests of its member states. Take EU crisis management missions and post-conflict stabilization efforts in war-torn states. Though they were meant to build peace and prevent a relapse into crisis, they also served European interests by creating a stable and norms-based global order with free trade and limited migration.