Contestation over EU foreign and development policy towards fragile states: conflicting norms, actors and practices

This paper analyses the EU’s strategic approach to state fragility, the evolution of which has been shaped indelibly by contestation over norms, actors and practices in EU foreign and development policy in recent decades. Building on the literature of norm contestation in multi-level and EU decision-making, we posit that the EU’s approach towards fragile and conflict-affected countries has been driven mostly by the ‘liberal’ peacebuilding tradition and its associated norms of solidarity and humanitarian impartiality, as well as by related norms promoted in the aid and development effectiveness agenda such as policy coherence and local ownership. At the same time, powerful normative drivers such as risk-averseness and the aim for the ‘protection’ of European interests as enshrined in the EU Global Strategy have securitised certain aspects of the EU’s fragile states approach, especially those related to refugees and migration and other perceived security threats. This norm contestation has been visible both at the EU level and in the interactions between EU institutions and member states over deployments in support of fragile and conflict-affected countries. The allocation and governance mechanisms of financial instruments, the character and scope of certain policy instruments, and the coordination of member state and EU-level resources are all in a process of formation and reformation, constantly shaped by norm contestation. Moreover, norm contestation becomes particularly evident at the level of interventions, where the mandates, objectives and exit strategies of EU missions are deeply affected by the ways in which member state and EU-level actors translate ‘liberal’ or ‘protection’ driving forces into practice. We posit that these contestation processes have consequential implications for the success or failure of interventions. This paper develops a conceptual framework that captures the essential contestation between ‘liberal and ‘protection’ norms in EU foreign and development policy towards fragile states. It discusses norm contestation at three levels: the discursive/policy level, the level of instruments, and the level of interventions with reference to two case studies, Mali and Libya. In these cases, we investigate how norm-contestation has influenced two key CSDP missions and their embeddedness in the EU’s broader engagement in these countries: the EU Training Mission (EUTM) in Mali, and operation Irini in the Mediterranean to enforce the arms embargo on Libya. Our analysis shows that ‘liberal’ norms are highly influential at the policy level, but that the influence of ‘protection’ norms increases at the level of instruments. Norm contestation at the level of interventions has impacted deeply on the EU’s ability to practice what it preaches, and accordingly on its contributions to peacebuilding in fragile and conflict-affected countries."