The EU and Military Conflict Management in Africa: For the Good of Africa or Europe?

Abstract

During the 1990s, conflict prevention and conflict management became core priorities of the European Union's policy towards Africa. In the current decade, conflict management with military means has become increasingly important to the EU. The article scrutinizes the efforts of the EU to develop a military conflict management policy and it shows the dynamics and the interests lying behind the two core instruments: EU military operations within the framework of the Common Foreign and Security Polity (CFSP) / European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) and the funding of ‘African solutions to African problems’. It is the argument that development of a military conflict management policy has been and still is motivated by European concerns and European interests. Only secondly is it motivated by concerns for Africa. Because CFSP/ESDP conflict management is guided by the principle of intergovernmentalism, some member states, particularly France, exert significant influence on the EU's conflict management policy in Africa.