Chapter 9 EU External Action, Intention and Explanation

"“Unintended consequences” is an umbrella concept. It comprises
phenomena that differ in crucial respects and consequently, without
refinement, it remains a rather blunt instrument for policy
analysis. The contributions in this volume, however, show that
disentangling unintended consequences by making clear distinctions
between various types, makes the concept much more useful
for policy analysis. Assessing the impact of EU foreign policies as
studied in this volume, we show that “bonuses”, “windfalls”, “accidents”,
and “trade-offs” – all unintended – are very different when
it comes to the explanation of policy outcomes, or to allocating
responsibility for them."