Make do, or mend? EU security provision in complex conflicts: the Democratic Republic of Congo

Abstract

This article assesses whether the EU contributes to long-term positive change in societies emerging from violent conflict, helping them ‘mend’ or whether it simply encourages societies to ‘make do’ with the status quo. To do so, the article focuses on two of the principles found in the Treaty, peace and justice for human rights violations. It examines how the EU translates the principles of peace and justice into policy and puts them into practice by analyzing EU engagement in peace mediation, transitional justice, and security sector reform in general and through in-depth examination of EU engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It questions the prevailing discourse that greater inter-institutional coherence would improve EU security provision and considers whether and how the EU prioritizes between peace and justice. The article finds that principles may be translated into policy and put into practice, and practice is often ahead of policy. But this is uneven within as well as across the institutions. Greater coherence between principle, policy, and practice, rather than between institutions, would improve EU security provision and enable prioritization. If the EU settles for making do, it undermines its considerable potential to contribute to long-term solutions to complex conflicts.

Keywords:

• transitional justice
• peace mediation
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• EU security provision
• security sector reform

Acknowledgments

My thanks to Richard G. Whitman and Stefan Wolff, who organized the workshop Towards a Theory of the EU as an International Security Provider: Actors, Processes, Outcomes, Impact at the ECPR Joint Sessions in Mainz, March 2013, and to Annemaire Peen Rodt, Gorm Rye Olsen, Richard G. Whitman and Stefan Wolff, organizers of the workshop The European Union as an International Security Provider at the University of Roskilde in November 2013, the participants of both workshops and European Security's anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes on contributor

Laura Davis is a researcher and consultant on justice and peacebuilding issues.

Author Interviews

A EU member state official, Brussels, January 2006.

B Senior EU official 1, Brussels, January 2011

C Spokesman, Congrès national pour la défense du peuple (CNDP), Goma, DRC, May 2008

D Senior EU official 2, Kinshasa, DRC, June 2008

E EU official 1, Kinshasa, March 2008

F EU member state official, Brussels, May 2008

G Civil society representatives, Kinshasa, May 2008

H Civil society representatives, Kinshasa, June 2008

I EU official, Goma, January 2013

J EU official, Goma, October 2010

K EU official, Goma, May 2011

L EU official, Kinshasa, April 2008

Notes

1. The reasons for the changing role of the EU in these processes are examined in (Davis 2014).