Abstract
The overall aim of this article is to provide an insight into EU’s engagement and increasing role in conflict resolution in Africa. The question addressed in this article is about the nature and scope of this commitment. To that end, this article provides an up-to-date analysis of the instruments committing the European Union to conflict resolution in Africa with a view to define and delimit, contextualize and measure its normative density. It takes a closer look at both unilateral instruments of the EU as well as those originating from the Union’s contractual relations with its African partners. It addresses a number of controversies generated by the normative: vertical and horizontal, institutional and functional fragmentation of the EU’s commitment to conflict resolution in Africa. The overarching argument presented in this article is that the European Union and its African partners need to move away from their dramatically fragmented partnership toward a more comprehensive, integrated and long-term regime for the EU’s engagement in conflict resolution in Africa.
Highlights
Since the end of the Cold War, conflict resolution and management, conflict prevention and post-conflict rebuilding have risen to the top of the international agenda and have become core objectives of the EU’s relations with Africa
Even though the international relations of the European Union have recently been dominated by the events in Ukraine, conflict in Africa remains high on the EU agenda. In her recent speech to the UN Security Council on the cooperation between the EU and the UN in the field of international peace and security, EU High Representative Catherine Aston, strongly advocated the EU’s comprehensive approach to conflict resolution and claimed that it has been exemplified in dealing with crises in Africa
EU legislation reflecting its commitment to conflict resolution in Africa embodies a large number of Council decisions and regulations and Political and Security Committee decisions such as the recently (14 January 2014) adopted Decision extending the mandate of the Head of Mission of the European Union CSDP mission in Niger (EUCAP Sahel Niger)
Summary
Since the end of the Cold War, conflict resolution and management, conflict prevention and post-conflict rebuilding have risen to the top of the international agenda and have become core objectives of the EU’s relations with Africa. In her recent speech to the UN Security Council on the cooperation between the EU and the UN in the field of international peace and security, EU High Representative Catherine Aston, strongly advocated the EU’s comprehensive approach to conflict resolution and claimed that it has been exemplified in dealing with crises in Africa She elaborated this by referring to the European Union’s engagement in conflicts in Somalia, Mali, Niger and the Central African Republic (Address, 2014). The paper cannot ignore and put aside regulations concerning EU’s relations with sub-Saharan Africa, especially the Cotonou agreement, or EU’s relations with North Africa, based on the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the Union for the Mediterranean and the European Neighbourhood Policy Another clarification that needs to be made here is that this article is primarily concerned with the CFSP /CDSP and CFSP/CDSP related diplomatic instruments and activities carried out under the overall authority of the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. This paper places the EU’s engagement in conflict resolution in Africa in its rich normative and historical context while assessing its achievements, failures and prospects for the future
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