ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is to critically review the policies of the European Union (EU) towards Africa since the end of the Cold War.1 In doing so the main themes will be threefold. First, there is an attempt to identify some of the most important areas of both continuity and change that have influenced the development of EU policy towards the continent. Second, parts of the discussion will relate to debates concerning how significant a global actor the EU is in its own right. Third, the framework of the analysis will highlight how, in many areas, the nature and future direction of EU policy towards Africa is very similar to both the bilateral relations of many major states, and the policies of the major international financial institutions (discussed elsewhere in this volume).
