The lack of systematic and steady attention received by the conflict management paradigm has arguably been very costly to the EU and to the international community. The European Union and its Member States are now faced with a seemingly overwhelming number of problems. Illustrating with examples taken from post-Cold War developments in and around Europe, this chapter elaborates on the argument that conflict management remains an insufficiently prominent paradigm in EU external action. What is proposed is not that the conflict management paradigm alone should be at the centre of attention, but that it should be promoted more prominently in synergy with other policy perspectives.