ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) has the ambition to address security challenges by taking a “comprehensive approach”. In several official communications, the EU has underlined its commitment to human security.1 This should be seen in light of the recognition that security and development are interrelated and that this understanding of a security-development nexus should inform the EU’s policies.2
Institutionally, progress towards a “whole-of-government approach” has been made in 2010 with the establishment of the European External Action Service (EEAS) which brings together national diplomats, former Commission officials from the Directorates General of Development and External Relations and
Council officials.3 Increasingly, these new ways of understanding security issues are informing the EU’s strategies towards developing regions, including the Horn of Africa,4 the Great Lakes5 and the Sahel.6 In these strategies, the link between security, development, humanitarian problems and democratic governance is central. Nonetheless, the 2013 Joint Communication by the European Commission and the EEAS on a comprehensive approach to external conflicts and crises hardly mentions democratic governance and humanitarian objectives.7
