The undoing of a unique relationship? Peace and security in the EU–South Africa Strategic Partnership

ABSTRACT

When the European Union (EU) and South Africa acceded to a strategic partnership, they expanded into new areas of partnership. One of these areas was peace and security, which is the focus of this article. The article argues that, although there appears to be a shared understanding of what security means, the strategic partnership has not been utilised significantly to further this understanding in practice. This is largely due to the EU's preferences for a continental, multilateral approach over the bilateralism of a strategic partnership. At the same time, South Africa sees its strategic partnership with the EU as being outside of its broader commitment to regional security. As a result the peace and security element of the strategic partnership has not been leveraged effectively despite several entry points for action. The article thus concludes that both the EU and South Africa need to re-think the current arrangement.

Key Words:

• EU-South Africa relations
• capacity building
• peace and security
• strategic partnership
• crisis management
• WPS agenda

Notes on contributor

Toni Haastrup is a Lecturer in international security at the University of Kent. She is also a deputy director of its Global Europe Centre. Her research centres on the practices of regional security actors and feminist understandings of international security practices.

ORCID

Toni Haastrup http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6374-1389

Notes

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2. Jørgensen MW & LJ Phillips, Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: Sage, 2002, p. 26.

3. These include Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia.

4. Embassy of the Republic of South Africa, ‘ACP Section, http://www.southafrica.be/acp/ (accessed 21 July 2016).

5. Whitman R & T Haastrup, ‘Locating the EU's strategic behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa: an emerging strategic culture?,’ in Carbone M (ed.) The European Union: Incoherent Policies, Asymmetrical Partnership, Declining Relevance? Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013, pp. 57–76.

6. By intertextuality, I refer to the practice of how one text influences another by shaping the meaning of a particular idea, or concept of practice. In this case, it is the idea that the EU has aspirations to be a global security actor and thus includes a desire to cooperate on peace and security in the majority of all its external relations by recalling its various instruments either verbatim or in context.

7. Republic of South Africa (Department of International Relations and Cooperation), Building a Better World: The Diplomacy of Ubuntu – White Paper on South Africa's Foreign Policy, 2011, http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/foreignpolicy_0.pdf (accessed 18 May 2017).

8. Fawcett L, ‘Exploring regional domains: A comparative history of regionalism’, International Affairs, 80.3, 2004, p. 433.

9. See for example Mearsheimer JJ, ‘Structural realism’, in Dunne T, M Kurki & S Smith (eds), International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp. 77–93.

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13. Emphasis added. Republic of South Africa, White Paper on Intelligence, 1994, pp. 6–7 (accessed 17 August 2016).

14. Republic of South Africa (Department of International Relations and Cooperation), Building a Better World: The Diplomacy of Ubuntu – White Paper on South Africa's Foreign Policy, 2011, http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/foreignpolicy_0.pdf p.20 (accessed 18 May 2017).

15. Republic of South Africa, South African Defence Review, 2014, http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/defencereview_2014_intro.pdf (accessed 8 November 2016).

16. Council of the European Union, European Security Strategy. Brussels: European Union, 2003, p. 6.

17. Ibid.

18. This is certainly the perspective of former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan cited in United Nations, A More Security World: Our Shared Responsibility, Report of the Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. New York: United Nations, 2004.

19. Stern M & J Öjendal, ‘Mapping the security–development nexus: Conflict, complexity, cacophony, convergence?’, Security Dialogue, 41.1, 2010, pp. 5–30.

20. Republic of South Africa, South African Defence Review, 2014, http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/defencereview_2014_intro.pdf (accessed 8 November 2016).

21. Republic of South Africa, White Paper on Intelligence, 1994, pp. 6–7 (accessed 17 August 2016).

22. Stern M & J Öjendal, ‘Mapping the security–development nexus: Conflict, complexity, cacophony, convergence?’, Security Dialogue, 41.1, 2010, pp. 5–30.

23. European Union Council, Security Strategy. Brussels: European Union, 2003.

24. South Africa Department of International Relations and Cooperation, Joint Press Release: 13th South Africa–European Union Ministerial Political Dialogue (MPD) Meeting held on 26 February 2016, in Pretoria, South Africa, SA–EU Strategic Partnership, www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2016/eu0229.htm (accessed 2 August 2016).

25. Ibid.

26. Stern M & J Öjendal, ‘Mapping the security–development nexus: Conflict, complexity, cacophony, convergence?’, Security Dialogue, 41.1, 2010, pp. 5–30.

27. See Haastrup, T. Charting Transformation through Security: Contemporary EU–Africa Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013 for an account of the development of interregional security cooperation.

28. Stern M & J Öjendal, ‘Mapping the security–development nexus: Conflict, complexity, cacophony, convergence?’, Security Dialogue, 41.1, 2010, pp. 5–30.

29. A Human Security Doctrine for Europe: the Barcelona Report of the Study Group on Europe's Security Capabilities was produced by a group of experts led by LSE professor Mary Kaldor, 2003, http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/CSHS/humanSecurity/barcelonaReport.pdf

30. Hereafter referred to as the study group.

31. Fukuda-Parr S & C Messineo, ‘Human security: A critical review of the literature’. CRPD Working Paper no. 11, January 2012. KU Leuven, Leuven, https://soc.kuleuven.be/web/files/12/80/wp11.pdf

32. A European Way of Security The Madrid Report of the Human Security Study Group comprising a Proposal and Background Report was produced by a group of experts led by LSE professor Mary Kaldor, 2007, http://www.world-governance.org/IMG/pdf_0078_A_European_Way_of_Security.pdf

33. A Human Security Doctrine for Europe: the Barcelona Report of the Study Group on Europe's Security Capabilities was produced by a group of experts led by London School of Economics (LSE) professor Mary Kaldor, 2003, http://www.lse.ac.uk/internationalDevelopment/research/CSHS/humanSecurity/barcelonaReport.pdf

34. African Union, African Union Non-aggression and Common Defence Pact. Addis Ababa: African Union, 2005, http://www.au.int/en/sites/default/files/treaties/7788-file-african_union_non_aggression_and_common_defence_pact.pdf (accessed 18 August 2016).

35. Republic of South Africa (Department of International Relations and Cooperation), Building a Better World: The Diplomacy of Ubuntu – White Paper on South Africa's Foreign Policy, 2011, http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/foreignpolicy_0.pdf p.4 (accessed 18 May 2017).

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38. A September 2004 special section of the journal Security Dialogue perfectly captures the divergent and ambivalent perspectives of scholars concerning human security as a security paradigm.

39. Stern M & J Öjendal, ‘Mapping the security–development nexus: Conflict, complexity, cacophony, convergence?’, Security Dialogue, 41.1, 2010, pp. 5–30, at p. 15.

40. A European Way of Security: The Madrid Report of the Human Security Study Group comprising a Proposal and Background Report was produced by a group of experts led by LSE professor Mary Kaldor, 2007, http://www.world-governance.org/IMG/pdf_0078_A_European_Way_of_Security.pdf

41. Stern M & J Öjendal, ‘Mapping the security–development nexus: Conflict, complexity, cacophony, convergence?’, Security Dialogue, 41.1, 2010, pp. 5–30, at p. 18.

42. Ibid.

43. Africa–EU ‘Joint Africa-EU Strategy’ (JAES), 2007, http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/sites/default/files/documents/eas2007_joint_strategy_en.pdf (accessed 18 August 2016).

44. Van Nieuwkerk, A. ‘South Africa and the African peace and security architecture’, Norwegian Peacebuilding Resources Centre Report, NOREF, Oslo, March 2014, http://noref.no/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/8e49f907f05d51bc0a848dcf3745a11c.pdf (accessed 8 November 2016).

45. Ibid.

46. SA–EU Strategic Partnership: The Dialogue Facility ‘About us’, http://www.dialoguefacility.org/about.html (accessed 18 August 2016).

47. Ibid.

48. South African Liaison Office, ‘Dialogue on Burundi’, 28 July 2016, Pretoria, http://www.salo.org.za/dialogue-on-burundi-thursday-28-july-2016-pretoria/ (accessed 9 November 2016).

49. Ibid.

50. http://eeas.europa.eu/archives/csdp/missions-and-operations/artemis-drc/index_en.htm

51. Tardy T, ‘CSDP: Getting third states on board’, Brief Issue. European Union Institute for Security Studies, Paris, 2014, http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/Brief_6_CSDP_and_third_states.pdf (accessed 9 November 2016).

52. Ibid.

53. Zandee D, H Hoebeke, H Merket & M Meijnders, The EU as a Security Actor in Africa: In-depth study Clingendael Monitor 2016. The Hague: Clingendael, Netherlands Institute of International Relations, 2015, http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/clingendael_monitor2016-the_EU_as_a_security_actor_in_africa-eng_0.pdf (accessed 28 October 2016).

54. In the majority of the concept notes that describe current EU missions in Africa carried out under the auspices of the CSDP, the EU always makes reference to the Joint Africa EU Strategy; its Peace and Security aims; and the role of the AU as its primary interlocutor. On its official website, the AU along with NATO, the UN and ASEAN are named as essential peace and security partners as part of the multilateralisation of peace and security the EU pursues, https://eeas.europa.eu/topics/common-security-and-defence-policy-csdp/5392/csdp-structure-instruments-and-agencies_en (accessed 28 October 2016).

55. MacRae H, ‘The EU as a gender equal polity: Myths and realities’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 48.1, 2010, pp. 155–74; Guerrina R & KAM Wright, ‘Gendering normative power Europe: Lessons of the women, peace and security agenda’, International Affairs, 92.2, 2016, pp. 293–312.

56. Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, ‘Why women peace and security? – Solutions: Innovative WPS agenda’, 2016, http://www.peacewomen.org/why-WPS/solutions (accessed 30 October 2016).

57. Ibid.

58. EU Delegation to the United Nations, EU Statement – United Nations Security Council: Resolution 1325 Women, Peace and Security, 25 October 2016, http://eu-un.europa.eu/eu-statement-united-nations-security-council-resolution-1325-women-peace-security/

59. Emphasis added. Council of the European Union, Second Report on the EU Indicators for the Comprehensive Approach to the EU Implementation of the UN Security Resolutions 1325 & 1820 on Women Peace and Security. Brussels: Council of the European Union, 2014, http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6219-2014-INIT/en/pdf (accessed 29 October 2016).

60. Guerrina R & KAM Wright, ‘Gendering normative power Europe: Lessons of the Women, Peace and Security agenda’, International Affairs, 92.2, 2016, pp. 293–312.

61. Section 21 of the JAES clearly references UNSCR 1325; subsequent references to the broader content of UNSCR 1325 appear in Sections 41, 55 and 63 – which deals specifically with gender equality and reiterates the provisions of the WPS agenda around sexual and gender based violence; and finally in Section 70 which deals with EU–Africa cooperation on human trafficking especially of Women and Children. For more context see: Africa–EU, ‘Joint Africa–EU Strategy’ (JAES), 2007, http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/sites/default/files/documents/eas2007_joint_strategy_en.pdf (accessed 18 August 2016).