All at Sea? Maritime Dimensions of Europe's Relations with Africa. Issue 2 (July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Styan, David
• Is Part Of: Insight on Africa. Volume 8:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 112
• Page End: 130
• Publication Date: 2016-07
• Subjects: Maritime security -- European Union -- Africa -- anti-piracy; Africa -- Periodicals; Africa -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; Africa -- Foreign relations -- Periodicals; 960.05
• DOI: 10.1177/0975087816646891
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0975-0878

Abstract

The article examines three dimensions of Europe's maritime relations with Africa: first, the notion that Europe's strategic maritime frontiers are linked to Africa; second, the coherence or 'actorness' of the European Union's (EU) anti-piracy force operating off the Horn of Africa; and third, the relationship between the EU's own military and naval objectives and its wider regional policies in Africa. While the EU adopted a 'Maritime Security Strategy' in 2014, the article notes that, in practice, the EU's strategy at sea has focused on two groups of 'non-state actors': the Africans who are 'pirates'; and the migrants crossing the Mediterranean, who are the object of the EU's Frontex patrols. As such, the initial question examined charts the somewhat fluid notion of the sea as a maritime frontier: where do Europe's strategic interests in terms of its maritime frontiers lie? Is the EU's anti-piracy mission defending them? Is this first-ever maritime mission a more tangible manifestation of EU's common foreign and defence policy than some of the other shorter and smaller military and policing missions in Africa?