ABSTRACT
The EU's conflict management policy towards Africa in the period 2003-2009 can best be understood within a realist framework. In terms of actors, the most powerful member states, and especially France, have set the agenda. In terms of motives, EU foreign policy in security issues appears to be driven by an aspiration to enhance the prestige of Europe in the world, and its independence from the USA. This article argues that member state leaders want to be perceived as ethical actors, and they use the EU as an instrument in order to share the responsibility of intervention. In practice, EU leverage on African conflicts, for example through aid conditionality and trade policies, is weak, and EU engagement is shaped largely by previous patterns of relations between former colonial powers and former colonies. While EU military missions are a new instrument in EU policy towards Africa, these are small in number, and limited in duration and territorial coverage. For these reasons, the article concludes that the EU's conflict management policy is generally not credible in African states.
