Europe in the Sahel: Analysing the Failures of Capacity Building
Date
2024
Authors
van Weelderen, Jasper
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Victoria
Abstract
Despite 10 years of conflict and foreign intervention, the international community has been unable to bring peace to the Sahel region in Africa by building state security capacities. This paper investigates as to why the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) were unable to build peace in the region through capacity building missions by asking the following question: How do the EU and UN explain their failure to build state security capacities in the Sahel, and to what extent are these explanations similar? To answer this question this paper adopts a qualitative approach, analysing six government documents from the EU and the UN. The findings of this paper suggest that the EU and UN explain their failures differently, with the EU viewing itself as the main actor responsible for program failure, while the UN views local actors as responsible for creating the operational conditions that led to program failure.
Description
Keywords
European security, peacekeeping, Sahel, United Nations, European Union, capacity building