The politicization of EU Crisis Management:A Case Study of the February 2014 Ebola Epidemic

This study aims to answer the question to what extent and how did politicization affect the adequacy of crisis management within the European Union concerning the Ebola outbreak in February 2014. Through Realistic Evaluation and Causal Process Tracing mechanisms are detected that influenced the adequacy of crisis management in the European Union. These mechanisms are represented in this study by the variables level of politicization, geopolitical context, improvisation from protocols and the existence of a coordinating structure. Through a document analysis of qualitative data it is uncovered that the level of politicization and mediatization surrounding the crisis influenced the crisis communication of the European Commission. Furthermore findings in the study indicate that the existence of an up to date crisis management protocol and a strong coordinating presence have a positive influence on the adequacy of crisis management. In this case the strong geopolitical context increased the level of politicization of the crisis, although no relation could be discovered between the geopolitical context and the adequacy of crisis management. Finally this study did not provide the necessary results to discover a relation between the other variables and improvisation from protocol, neither did it provide the information necessary to discover a relation between improvisation from protocol and the adequacy of crisis management.