How much unity do you need? Systemic contestation in EU foreign and security cooperation

The Common Foreign & Security Policy (CFSP) is a transnational policy framework to deliver collective foreign and also manage differences among member states. As such, it has always been dependent on their support. Since 2019, however, disagreement within this system said have reached new level. Taking political trend as our starting point, article proposes new, conceptual approach understanding how contestation challenges the EU’s cooperation system. While majority of research focuses disagreements in decision-making, we argue for broader conceptualisation – systemic contestation. Drawing norm scholarship, that manifests itself two ways: passive contestation, when states disengage from fail take ownership CFSP initiatives implementation; tacit they act faced with need safeguard This accounts transgovernmental character CFSP; central role it. Finally, contend offers promising avenues empirical understand “black box” EU cooperation.