Arjen Boin is Professor of Governance and Crisis Management in the School of Governance at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, and an Adjunct Professor in the Public Administration Institute of Louisiana State University. He is also managing partner at Crisisplan. Magnus Ekengren is an Associate Professor at the Swedish National Defence College, and Director of the College's Programme for European Security Research (EUROSEC). Mark Rhinard is Senior Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and Associate Professor at Stockholm University.

• 1. The EU as crisis manager: a new role for the Union; 2. Assisting overwhelmed states: the evolving use of the Civil Protection Mechanism; 3. The EU as global crisis manager: how emerging tools shaped ambitious policy aims; 4. Managing transboundary crises: the gradual emergence of EU capacity; 5. Managing future crises: challenges and prospects for the European Union.

'This insightful book explains the unexpected rise of the European Union as a crisis manager and the strengths and limitations of its current crisis management capabilities. The product of an unusually fruitful collaboration between scholars of crisis management, European integration and international security, the book frames an important debate about the EU's present and future role in managing crises. European leaders will ignore this book at their peril!' Chris Ansell, University of California, Berkeley