Multilateralism as a tool: Exploring French military cooperation in the Sahel

ABSTRACT

President François Hollande entered public office in 2012 with a non-interventionist agenda that promised to draw down French troops in Africa and promoted collective African and European mechanisms to reduce France’s military footprint in the region. One year later, the same president deployed 4,000 combat troops to Mali, initially without any multilateral participation. To understand this apparent contradiction between multilateral rhetoric and operational unilateralism, this article looks at France’s efforts in previous years to establish African and European military operations in support of the Malian state. The article finds that France’s commitment to multilateralism is genuine yet not absolute – meaning that French policy-makers do not shy away from operational unilateralism if conditions on the ground seem to require swift and robust military action, as long as they can count on the political support of key international partners.

KEYWORDS:

• Operation Serval
• Mali
• French foreign policy
• Sahel
• terrorism
• multilateralism
• European Union

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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²¹ Ole Holsti, ‘Foreign Policy Formation Viewed Cognitively’, 44.

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²³ Rachel Utley, ‘Franco-African Military Relations’, 26. Cameroon, Central African Republic, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Gabon, Senegal and Togo.

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³⁰ Bruno Charbonneau, ‘What is so special about the European Union?’, 616; Rachel Utley, ‘Franco-African Military Relations’.

³¹ Bruno Charbonneau, ‘Dreams of Empire: France, Europe, and the New Interventionism in Africa’, Modern & Contemporary France 16/3 (2008b), 283.

³² Already in the 1970s, Giscard d’Estaing referred to a nexus of ‘peace, independence, and development, which need to be assured by the Africans themselves’. Jean-Luc Dagut, ‘L’Afrique, la France et le monde dans le discours giscardien’, Politique Africaine 5 (March 1982) 19–27. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Carter administration employed similar wording to describe their approach towards Africa. Nicolas van de Walle, ‘US policy towards Africa: The Bush legacy and the Obama administration’, African Affairs 109/434 (2009), 1–21.

³³ Thomas Melonio, ‘Quelle Politique Africaine pour la France en 2012?’ Les Essaies 06/11 (Paris: Fondation Jean Jaurès 2011), 28–33.

³⁴ François Hollande, ‘Discours de M. le Président de la République devant l’Assemblée Nationale de la République du Sénégal’, Press release (12 October 2012).

³⁵ Paul Melly & Vincent Darracq, ‘A New Way to Engage?’, 3.

³⁶ Bernard Valero, ‘Mali: Entretien du Porte-Parole du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères avec «France 24»’, Press release (July 2012).

³⁷ François Hollande, ‘Conférence de Presse Conjointe de M. le Président de la République et de M. Thomas Boni Yayi, Président de la République Du Bénin et Président de l’Union Africaine’ (29 May 2012).

³⁸ Laurent Fabius, ‘Entretien Du Ministre Des Affaires Étrangères Avec France-Inter/Le Monde/AFP’, Press release (7 October 2012).

³⁹ Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, ‘Point de Presse’ (10 January 2013).

⁴⁰ Policy officer at the Directorate of Cooperation of Security and Defence, interview by author, Paris, 18 February 2014; see also. Marina Henke (this issue).

⁴¹ Tiemoko Diallo, ‘Mali Islamists Capture Strategic Town, Residents Flee’, Reuters (10 January 2013) http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/10/us-mali-rebels-idUSBRE90912Q20130110.

⁴² Laurent Fabius, ‘Déclarations Officielle de Politique Étrangère du 21 Mars 2013: Mali/Conférence sur le Développement – Allocution du Ministre des Affaires Étrangères’, Press release (24 November 2013).

⁴³ Gérard Araud, ‘Mali: Remarques à la Presse du Représentant Permanent de la France auprès des Nations Unies’, Press release (14 January 2013).

⁴⁴ Civil servant at the Foreign Ministry, interview by author, Paris, 5 February 2014.

⁴⁵ Stephen Smith, ‘In Search of Monsters’, The London Review of Books 35/3 (2013), 3–5.

⁴⁶ Gérard Araud, ‘Mali – Remarques à la Presse du Représentant Permanent de la France auprès des Nations Unies’, Press release (5 December 2012).

⁴⁷ François Hollande, ‘Déclaration du Président de la République sur la Situation au Mali’ (2013).

⁴⁸ Susanna Wing, ‘French Intervention in Mali: Strategic Alliances, Long-Term Regional Presence?’, Small Wars & Insurgencies 27/1 (2016), 60.

⁴⁹ Ministère des Armées, ‘Dossier de Presse: Operation Barkhane’, (April 2018) https://www.defence.gouv.fr/operations/barkhane/dossier-de-reference/operation-barkhane.

⁵⁰ Nicolas Desgrais, ‘Cinq ans après, une radioscopie du G5 Sahel. Des réformes nécessaires de l’Architecture et du processus décisionnel’, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique – Observatoire du Monde Arabo-Musulman et du Sahel (March 2019) 1–140.

⁵¹ Emmanuel Macron, ‘Conférence de Presse Commune du Président de la République Française et du Président du Mali G5 Sahel’, (2017a, 3 July).

⁵² Jean Fleury, La France en Guerre au Mali: Les Combats d’AQMI et la Révolte des Touareg (Paris: Jean Piccolec 2013), 11.

⁵³ Adrian Treacher, French Interventionism.

⁵⁴ Bastien Irondelle, ‘European Foreign Policy: The End of French Europe?’, Journal of European Integration 30/1 (2008), 154.

⁵⁵ Schmidt 1987, 306, quoted in Ulrich Krotz & James Sperling, ‘The European Security Order between American Hegemony and French Independence’, European Security 20/3 (2011), 313.

⁵⁶ Emmanuel Macron, ‘Initiative Pour l’Europe – Discours d’Emmanuel Macron pour une Europe Souveraine, Unie, Démocratique’, (2017b, 26 September) https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2018/01/09/initiative-pour-l-europe-discours-d-emmanuel-macron-pour-une-europe-souveraine-unie-democratique.

⁵⁷ Emmanuel Macron, ‘Initiative Pour l’Europe’.

⁵⁸ Two years after the launch of Operation Serval, by evoking article 42.7 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union in the aftermath of the 2015 Paris attacks, France underlined its belief in European solidarity and the need for shared responsibilities in defence and security matters, see also ECFR, Art. 42.7: An explainer (19 November 2015) https://www.ecfr.eu/article/commentary_article_427_an_explainer5019.

⁵⁹ Alan K. Henrikson, ‘Distance and Foreign Policy: A Political Geography Approach’, International Political Science Review 23/4 (2002), 440.

⁶⁰ Assemblée nationale, ‘Compte Rendu Intégral. Session Ordinaire de 2012–2013; 224° Séance: Déclaration du Gouvernement sur l’autorisation de la Prolongation de l’Intervention des Forces Françaises au Mali, Débat et Vote sur cette Déclaration’ (2013), 4781.

⁶¹ Ambassade de France à Nicosie, ‘Le Ministre de la Défense Jean-Yves Le Drian en Déplacement à Chypre pour la Rencontre Informelle des Ministres de la Défense de l’Union Européenne’, Press release (12 June 2014).

⁶² Jean-Yves Le Drian, ‘Entretien du Ministre de la Défense, Monsieur Jean-Yves Le Drian, Avec Le Quotidien El Pais’, Press release (19 October 2012).

⁶³ François Hollande, ‘Discours de M. le Président de la République’.

⁶⁴ Adekeye Adebajo & Kaye Whiteman (eds.), The EU and Africa: From Eurafrique to Afro-Europa (London: Hurst 2012); Megan Brown, ‘Drawing Algeria into Europe: Shifting French Policy and the Treaty of Rome (1951–1964)’, Modern & Contemporary France 25/2 (2017), 191–208; Benedikt Erforth, ‘Mental Maps and Foreign Policy Decision-Making: Eurafrique and the French Military Intervention in Mali’, European Review of International Studies 2 (2016), 38–57.

⁶⁵ Christina Hellmich, ‘Mali/Algeria: Threat of AQIM to Europe Has Been Overstated’ African Arguments (2013) http://africanarguments.org/2013/01/22/malialgeria-threat-of-aqim-to-europe-has-been-overstated-by-christina-hellmich/.

⁶⁶ Former spokesperson of François Hollande, interview by author, Paris, 7 October 2013.

⁶⁷ Zaik Laidi, ‘Mali Intervention Also Secures Europe’, Financial Times (2013); Isabelle Lasserre & Thierry Oberlé, Notre Guerre Secrète au Mali: Le Nouvelles Menaces Contre La France (Paris: Fayard 2013) 48; Samuel Laurent, Sahelistan: De la Libye au Mali, au Coeur du Nouvel Jihad (Paris: Seuil 2013) 220–21.

⁶⁸ Adrian Treacher, French Interventionism, 53.

⁶⁹ Roland Marchal, ‘Briefing: Military (Mis)Adventures in Mali’, African Affairs 112/448 (2013), 488.

⁷⁰ Xavier Collignon, former vice-director of the Délégation aux affaires stratégiques, interview by author, Paris, 6 August 2013.

⁷¹ Assemblée nationale, ‘Compte Rendu N° 2 Commission de la Défense Nationale et des Forces Armées: Audition de M. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Ministre de la Défense’ (2012), 7.

⁷² Policy advisor French at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, interview by author, Paris, 30 August 2013.

⁷³ Project officer, Francophonie Organization, interview by author, Paris, 1 October 2013.

⁷⁴ Michel Goya, colonel, interview by author, Paris, 10 January 2014.

⁷⁵ Personal advisor to the president, interview by author, Paris, 16 March 2014.

⁷⁶ Assemblée nationale, ‘Compte Rendu N° 2 Commission de la Défense Nationale et des Forces Armées’.

⁷⁷ EUTM Mali, ‘Factsheet’ (June 2019).

⁷⁸ Réné Pfister, ‘Merkels Dilemma’, Der Spiegel (30 August 2018),

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/angela-merkel-das-afrika-dilemma-a-1225807.html.

⁷⁹ Bruno Charbonneau, France and the New Imperialism: Security Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa (Aldershot: Ashgate 2008a).

⁸⁰ Tony Chafer, ‘Franco-African Relations’.

⁸¹ On US efforts to gain multilateral approval for the use of force, for example, see Stefano Recchia, Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors: US Civil-Military Relations and Multilateral Intervention (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP 2015).

⁸² Jürgen Rüland, ‘“Principled Multilateralism” versus “Diminished Multilateralism”: Some General Reflections’, in Christian Echle et al. (eds.) Multilateralism in a Changing World, (Berlin: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung 2018), 1.

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Notes on contributors

Benedikt Erforth

Benedikt Erforth is a researcher at the German Development Institute where he works on EU-Africa relations and European development finance. He is also the author of Contemporary French Security Policy in Africa.