The EU's Military Operation in Chad and the Central African Republic: An Operation to Save Lives?

Abstract

EUFOR Chad/CAR, a European Union-led military operation deployed in Chad and the Central Africa Republic (CAR) between 2008 and 2009, was officially justified as a humanitarian operation. Critics argue that next to this motive there were French geo-strategic and economic interests. Other explanations are derived from the neo-realist approach and frameworks of analysis that focus on the EU and Western powers' internal dynamics. The results suggest that the goal of the operation was not humanitarian. The French government, with the support of pro-Darfurian lobbyists, used humanitarian concerns to ‘Europeanise’ its military commitments to Chad and CAR and attempt to beef up the deployment of 50,000 Africa Union–UN troops in Darfur. EU officials used the language of humanitarianism to attempt to strengthen key aspects of the European Security and Defence Policy. Overall, the findings provide evidence that there is a lack of EU strategic vision because of internal dynamics: a political decision was taken to launch a military operation without EU member states having a firm commitment to engage militarily or a vision of how it could provoke resistance on the ground. EUFOR Chad/CAR contributed to the escalation of the conflict.