(B)ordering Hybrid Security? EU Stabilisation Practices in the Sahara-Sahel Region

Abstract

This contribution analyses EU approach to stabilisation. Looking at the cases of Libya and Mali, the focus on emerging communities of stabilisation practices helps illustrate how EU investments in sector-specific capacity building are geared to the enhancement of sovereign prerogatives in neighbouring states that are experiencing domestic political challenges. Aiming to achieve a semblance of stability in remote borderlands, though, the outsourcing of Europe's security priorities—including border control and the fight against terrorism—has contributed to the ‘pragmatic’ legitimisation of dubious local partners who are not in normative alignment with EU principles, leading to the entrenchment of dysfunctional governance and patronage politics.

ORCID

Luca Raineri http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6107-0019

Francesco Strazzari http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4043-1388

Notes

1. The process of institutional reconfiguration that affected PRISM since early 2019 does not entail less emphasis on stabilisation: rather, it should be regarded as a way to better fuse it across different EU policy instruments, in accordance with the integrated approach to security promoted by the EUGS.

2. Interview with EUCAP Sahel Mali officer, Bamako, October 2017.

3. Declaration of Admiral Credendino, EUNAVFOR MED Commander, during the Shade Med event, Rome, November 2017.

4. Programme of support for enhanced security in the Mopti and Gao regions and for the management of border areas (PARSEC Mopti-Gao).

5. Interview with EU officer, Bamako, October 2017.

6. Interview with EU officer, Bamako, October 2017.

7. Interviews with EU officers and UN officers in Bamako and Tunis, October 2017.

8. Interview with Malian civil society platform, Bamako, October 2017.

9. Interview with EU officer, Bamako, October 2017.

10. Interviews with NGOs in Tunis and Rome, September and October 2017.

11. Interviews with UN high-ranking officers in charge of DDR in Mali and in Libya, Bamako and Tunis, October 2017.

12. Interview with EUCAP Sahel Mali officer, Bamako, October 2017. Scholars have argued the same in the case of Libya, see in particular Cole and Mangan (2016), and Akl (2017).

13. Interview with EU and UN officers, Bamako, October 2017, and with former UNSMIL officer, Rome, June 2018.

14. Interviews with EU officers involved in CSDP-missions in Libya and Mali, Tunis, Bamako and Rome, October-November 2017.

15. Interviews with UN and NGO officers, Tunis and Bamako, October 2017.

16. Interview with EU officers in Bamako, November 2015.

17. Interview with local independent researcher in Tunis, October 2017.

18. That is, France in Mali and Italy in Libya.

19. Interviews with UN officers of MINUSMA and UNSMIL, Bamako and Tunis, October 2017.

Additional information

Funding

This work was carried out thanks to the financial support for the research by the EU Commission Horizon 2020 Project EUNPACK – Good intentions, mixed results. A conflict sensitive unpacking of the EU comprehensive approach to conflict and crisis mechanisms [H2020-INT-05-2015], grant agreement n. 693337.