Paper short abstract:

The paper presents a research project aiming at investigating the impact of the promotion of regional integration by the EU on the resolution of regional conflicts. A component of the project will assess the viability of regional integration as a conflict transformation strategy in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

The European Union has been seen as a new type of 'normative power', aiming at diffusing its values through its external policy. The EU influence in Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worth noting. The EU is historically a leading partner for Africa and has grown increasingly involved in the management of regional conflict and in post-conflict reconstruction in Africa since the mid '90s. The EU presents itself - in Africa as elsewhere - as a successful model of conflict transformation by regional integration. The European institutions have spent a considerable amount of material resources and diplomatic efforts for promoting regionalism in Africa and for encouraging the transition of African regional organizations from a security culture of 'non interference' to one of 'non indifference'. From a theoretical point of view, the EU maybe effective in preventing and transforming African conflicts through compulsion, social learning, changing context through integration and model setting. Yet, both the motivations and the effectiveness of the EU's transregional cooperation with Africa in the field of conflict resolution are controversial. This paper presents REGIOCONF, a new collective research project aiming at investigating systematically the EU's engagement in addressing regional conflicts worldwide, particularly by promoting regional integration. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the project will address the cases of Sahel, the Great Lakes region and Darfur-Sudan.