There are several common themes stemming from a combined reading of the chapters. Firstly, the EU has sought to simultaneously pursue its security objectives and spread its values, such as democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, by encouraging reforms in its neighbourhood. However, it is increasingly evident that there are tensions and contradictions between these two objectives, which can be illuminated and better understood by considering another strand of literature, with which there has been little engagement in EU studies to date, namely the literature on human security. This book is the first to analyse these hugely topical developments in European security after the Lisbon Treaty. It was published as a special issue of .