Providing security in a liberal world order: The only tool left for European Union in Africa?

China has established a strong economic position in Africa, in particular due to the volume of its trade and FDI. No doubt, the progress of China challenges the former predominant position of Europe/the European Union on the continent. The paper argues that provision of security in violent conflicts is the only tool left for the EU to maintain some influence on African governments and African regional organizations. The argument is located within the debate on the development of a liberal world order. Therefore, the paper scrutinizes not only a number of conflicts but also the political dialogue between the African Union and the EU and the one between China and the AU. It also looks into the debate on the ‘responsibility to protect’ to see if there is a convergence of norms and values linked to the R2P. The paper concludes that provision of security is hardly an efficient tool for the European Union to maintain influence in Africa. Not only is China becoming very actively involved in peacekeeping. Moreover, the political dialogue between Africa and China is fairly conflict free and the two parties seem to share values and norms on the R2P. Not least, the Libya 2011 war split the EU and the Africans on norms and values on top of a difficult dialogue

EU’s Afrika-politik er nordificeret

Intet resum

Danmarks og EU’s fælles sikkerheds- og forsvarspolitik

På grund af forbeholdet om deltagelse i den fælles forsvars- og sikkerhedspolitik fremstår den danske politik inden for EU som usammenhængende og uforståelig – og dermed utroværdig.&nbsp

Between development policy and foreign policy ambitions: The European Union Strategy for Africa

The European Union has a declared policy to establish a “more effective foreign and security policy” by integrating its different policy instruments. The paper has a dual aim. The first is to show if and to what extent the declared intention of the European Union to integrate its different foreign policy instruments has actually been fulfilled in the case of its Africa policy. The second aim is to explain why or why not this development has taken place. It is the argument that the drive towards integrating the Union’s different foreign policy instruments towards Africa can be explained by referring to the old ambition of the European Community to become a significant actor on the international scene. It is assumed that the development of the CFSP and not least the ESDP is particularly crucial for fulfilling the global ambitions of the Union