The effectiveness of interregional security cooperation: evaluating the joint engagement of the EU and the AU in response to the 2013 crisis in the Central African Republic

ABSTRACT

African Union (AU)–European Union (EU) interregional security cooperation has not so far been analysed systematically with regard to its effectiveness despite the substantial support of African capacity building by the EU and joint peacekeeping of the partners. Assessing AU–EU cooperation in the Central African Republic (CAR), this paper examines to what extent and under which conditions EU–AU efforts are effective. Concerning the dependent variable, the presented conceptualisation of effectiveness includes both internal (goal attainment) and external (problem-solving) perspectives. The independent variable draws on two strands of literature that barely speak to each other: interregionalism and inter-organisationalism. It focuses on the conditions of effectiveness which include both internal (RO-specific) and interregional factors. The findings suggest that AU–EU engagement in the CAR was effective in the medium term. Strong incentives of the partners, the French leading role and the convergence of the partners are identified as factors conducive to a medium to high effectiveness of the engagement.

KEYWORDS:

• EU foreign policy
• regionalism
• interregionalism
• security
• conflict
• Central African Republic

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank all interview partners for sharing their views and insights with me. Field research for this study has benefitted from a scholarship by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), whose support is gratefully acknowledged. For helpful and constructive comments on earlier drafts, I would like to thank the panel participants and discussants of the ECPR SGEU Conference in Trento, the DVPW section conference in Heidelberg, Julian Bergmann and Arne Niemann. I would also like to thank Julia Blöser and Valentin Bösing for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Friedrich Plank is a PhD candidate and Research Fellow at the International Politics Unit, Department of Political Science at the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Germany. His research focuses on interregional relations, comparative regionalism, EU foreign policy, and peace and conflict studies.

Notes

1 The importance of this case with regard to the effectiveness of interregional engagement was also expressed by one interviewee (Interview G).

2 While the ousted President Bozizé had in vain called for French support in early 2013, France also declined to intervene in response to the new government’s appeal for assistance. Rising reports of Seleka-led attacks on civilians finally shifted the French position (Arieff 2014, p. 34).

3 However, the AU member states as well as the ECCAS member states did not oppose the engagement in the CAR.

4 German Foreign Minister Steinmeier asserted that the engagement of the EU in the CAR was not “the beginning of a big engagement in Africa after Afghanistan” (The Mercury 2014b).

5 In principle, regional mechanisms should provide for conflict management in their region as laid out within the framework of the APSA. However, in the CAR case, ECCAS as regional body responsible was not able to respond to the crisis using its regional force which is also related to organisational problems within ECCAS (Interview O, Q).