Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PARADOXGREATLAKES (Security Paradoxes in the Great Lakes: Between the Military-Capable and the Good-Governed State)

Teaser

The project was initially focused on the security-governance paradoxes resulting from the European Union’s (EU) security practices in the Great Lakes region. However, the project ended up broadening the focus on the Great Lakes region to examine broadly the paradoxes found...

Summary

The project was initially focused on the security-governance paradoxes resulting from the European Union’s (EU) security practices in the Great Lakes region. However, the project ended up broadening the focus on the Great Lakes region to examine broadly the paradoxes found on the security and peace building policies of the European Union, and specifically on the granting of military capacity under the EU’s Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace. Peacebuilding, as central to both EU’s security and normative foreign policy goals, points to crucial and transversal issues in security, development and foreign policy, of the EU in general as well as specific regions. The project concerned two hypothesis. Firstly, military and security measures, to which the EU has contributed extensively, have militarised peacebuilding, without achieving security or peace goals. Secondly, the aim to support military and security self-regulation could imply that the EU is transferring the attainment of security goals to the target states, thus losing some control and autonomy. Thirdly, though the EU has aimed to balance security and normative goals, scholars have questioned the extent to which a military and security-driven agenda is effective and whether it represents an abandonment of the good-governance agenda.

The project is important because EU\'s peacebuilding encapsulates both strategic and normative goals. The EU has increased the number of military missions, peacebuilding has been made part of a broader EU strategy to tackle migration and terrorism, which are crucial security issues for the EU at the moment. The EU has spent and spends considerable number of resources for peacebuilding and it is important for European citizens and the public at large to understand whether these policies are effective or not.

The project asks three questions, which represent the main issues it is focused on: Is the practice of supporting military and security capacity undermining the good governance agenda? What implications does this have for EU’s normative commitments? And, how effective is this practice for achieving EU’s security goals? The research addresses and connects these debates through two specific innovations. It advances the concept of the ‘military capable’ state, and it proposes an innovative practice-based methodology that links military support to patterns of security practices in processes of intervention. These paradoxes will offer important insights about how security and normative goals in policy and implementation interplay.

The PARADOXGREATLAKES project seeks to identify several problematic consequences for EU’s security policies (the paradoxes), while applying and disseminating a novel methodological approach based on the study of practices. Following this approach, the action will advance the concept of military-capable states, and explore the EU’s transformation into a ‘security consumer’ in the Great Lakes and beyond. These objectives will entail:
1. Identifying the paradoxes emerging from the support of military capacity as part of EU’s security policies.
2. Developing a methodological framework that studies practices as patterns embedded in processes.
3. Contributing to debates in peace and conflict studies, security studies, EU’s foreign policy, and Great Lakes and other key regions related research providing strong empirical insights and theoretical innovation.
4. Addressing policy debates to facilitate the drafting of more effective policies.
5. Disseminating research results and encouraging the practical application of research to understand the nature of security practices and its implications.

Work performed

The project started by reviewing the literature, setting up the framework and developing the main argument. It also gathered Council conclusions on relevant countries, Parliamentary debates as well as of any policy development from the EU that had to do with security and good governance goals in the region and Africa more broadly. It also collected budget figures on the Cotonou agreement, the Africa-EU partnership and the joint Africa-EU strategy.

During 2017 I collected the bulk of the empirical data for the project. As a result of the development of the research and in light of the data collected, the project became larger in its focus, turning from an exclusive focus on the Great Lakes region to examine broadly the paradoxes of EU\'s security and peace building policies, and specifically on the granting of military capacity under the EU’s Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace.

I undertook 25 interviews, which include representatives of EU states in the Council, members from the External Action Service (EEAS), EU military officers, officers managing peacebuilding projects on the ground, and concerned civil society members, such as from the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office. Some of these interviews were undertaken in Brussels, others have been done via Skype or telephone.

The project also systematically analysed CSDP missions. It compared the number of rule of law missions that had been authorised in comparison to military training, advisory and police or border missions. It also compared all CSDP mission mandates and subsequent amendments through Nvivo, regarding the number of references to \'good governance\', \'security\', \'rule of law\', \'training\' and \'capacity building\' in regards to institutions, police or military capacity in these mandates.

Data analysis and reporting was undertaken throughout 2018. Work in progress was presented at several conferences and seminars as the project developed, with the subsequent publications prepared and submitted.

Final results

The project proved to be much bigger and with broader consequences than what was initially expected. This is because the identified swings and contradictions in the EU in regards to its security and good governance goals in the Great Lakes region extend to other regions, including the mediterranean, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. The potential impact of this project is to make EU´s policy more coherent with its own goals, or at least, be able to identify the contradictions so that they become part of the public political debate.

The results highlight the paradoxical character of EU\'s peacebuilding, being torn between two goals: the construction of good governed states and the construction of military-capable states. Though these are thought of as reinforcing each other, it is apparent that the two may not be achieved simultaneously and more so, that the achievement of one is cancelling the other. Further, the EU, while attempting to consolidate as a security provider, it is rather consolidating as a security consumer.

Some of the most remarkable socio-economic implications have to do with the counter-productive outcomes of some of these policies. This comes from the support of democratically-doubtful regimes are receiving. This comes from EU\'s push to strengthen government\'s military and police capacity even when their human rights policies are questionable. The project documented cases in Niger, Cameroon, DRC as well as Turkey.

Website & more info

More info: http://europeinthegreatlakes.org/.