Research Papers

Central Africa has played a significant role in the development of the EU’s security and defence policy. It hosted three ‘autonomous’ military CSDP operations and thus underlined the Union’s ambition of supporting international security governance beyond both its own continent and purely civilian means of crisis management. Yet the EU’s activism in this realm has run out of steam because France, the primary author of CSDP initiatives in Africa, has faced increasing reluctance on the part of other EU governments. This paper traces this development, from the first two operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003 and 2006 via the operation in Chad to the decision not to respond to a UN request for a bridging operation in late 2008. Based on interviews with officials in Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London, it analyses the reasons underlying this growing lack of enthusiasm. This paper argues that they result from the very different domestic political incentives politicians in Paris as opposed to London and Berlin face. France’s willingness to be seen to ‘do something’ in the CSDP framework was not reciprocated once the EU had established some CSDP credentials, and its insistence that partners provide more than superficial support has led other capitals to take an increasingly contrarian stance. As the resulting standoff has come to threaten rather than abet ESDP, another sizable military operation in Central Africa appears unlikely.