Beyond Fashoda: Anglo-French security cooperation in Africa since Saint-Malo

International Affairs

Volumn 86, Issue 5, 2010, Pages 1129-1147

  Chafer, Tony ^a   Cumming, Gordon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77957329127     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: 14682346     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2010.00932.x     Document Type: Article

References (65)

1. Tom Dyson, 'Convergence and divergence in post-Cold War British, French, and German military reforms', Security Studies 17: 4, 2008, pp.725-74.
2. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) press release, 'St-Malo ten years after', contains a link to the 'full text' of the declaration that actually omits the Africa chapter:, accessed 20 Oct. see http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=PressS&id=10435411,2009.
3. See e.g. Jolyon Howorth, Security and defence policy in the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007);
4. Bernard Franke, Security cooperation in Africa: a reappraisal (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner,2009).
5. For a summary of Anglo-French defence cooperation, accessed 11 Dec. see http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Defence-cooperation.html,2009.
6. David Styan, 'Does Britain have an African policy?', in Centre d'Etudes d'Afrique Noire, Afrique politique (Paris: Karthala,1996), pp.261-86.
7. Neil Fenton, Understanding the Security Council (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), p. 140.
8. Sebastien Loisel, 'Entente cordiale ou moteur européen?', Les Champs de Mars, 1st semester 2004, p. 44.
9. Howorth, Security and defence policy, p. 4.
10. Howorth, Security and defence policy, 34 (emphasis added)., pp.4
11. In 2001 the French and UK governments also agreed to 'promote subregional integration, in particular between networks of anglophone and francophone countries': document obtained from the FCO, 2 April 2001.
12. 'Britain and France to make joint effort on terrorism and Darfur', 20 July, accessed 14 Dec.2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/world/europe/20iht-france.4.6757003.html,2009.
13. Personal communications, former UK officials in New York and London,2008.
14. Personal communications, UK and French officials in New York and Paris, 2009 2008-
15. This initiative now extends also to the C34 Special Committee on Peacekeeping, which includes around 120 members: communications with British officials in New York, 2009.
16. Personal communications, former UK officials in London and New York, 2008-2009.
17. There have also been other civilian/military missions in Africa: EUSSR Guinea-Bissau, 12 Feb. 2008-31 May 2009; EUPOL DRC, 1 July 2007-30 June, and EUSEC DRC, 8 June 2005-30 Sept. 2010. These operations will not concern us here, as our focus in this article is on military missions. 2009);
18. Niagalé Bagayoko, 'Les politiques européennes de prévention et de gestion des conflits en Afrique', Les Champs de Mars, 2nd semester 2004, p. 103.
19. Catherine Gegout, 'Causes and consequences of the EU's military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo: a realist explanation', European Foreign Affairs Review10: 3,2005, p.437.
20. Personal communication, former UK official in New York,2008.
21. Gorm Rye Olsen, 'Conflict management in Africa: American and European Union policies compared', paper given at the 50th annual convention of the International Studies Association, New York, 2009, p. 18.
22. International Herald Tribune, 13 June2006, p. 8.
23. Major-General Damay, French force commander, EUFOR Congo, quoted in 'The EU's Africa strategy: what are the lessons of the Congo mission?', discussion paper (Brussels: Security and Defence Agenda,2007), p. 5.
24. Howorth, Security and defence policy,p. 239.
25. In 2007 the UK was the third largest bilateral donor, providing €121.3 million, behind Belgium (€153.1 million) and the US (€132.4 million) but well ahead of France (€52.1 million); see OECD, Geographical distribution of financial flows to developing countries (Paris: OECD,2009), p. 122.
26. Personal communication, EU official, Addis Ababa, 2009.
27. Personal communication, French official, Addis Ababa, 2009.
28. Olsen, 'Conflict management in Africa',p. 18.
29. Personal communication, UK official, London,2009.
30. Giji Gya and Johann Herz, 'ESDP and EU mission updates', European Security Review 43, March2009, p. 2.
31. Personal communications, UK and French officials, Brussels; former UK naval officer,2009.
32. France nonetheless offered diplomatic support to the UK intervention in Sierra Leone. The UK also backed France's request for UN peacekeepers in Cǒte d'Ivoire and financed a Ghanaian contingent subsequently deployed under UN auspices: see Loisel, 'Entente cordiale',p. 52.
33. French and British approaches to, and policy towards, ECOWAS and the AU will be the subject of future articles by Tony Chafer.
34. Franke, Security cooperation in Africa, p. 78.
35. 'Africa Conflict Prevention Pool: the UK sub-Saharan strategy for conflict prevention', n.d. [2004], accessed 30 Nov.http://www.operations.mod.uk/africa/ACPPstrategy.pdf,2009.
36. 'Les Ecoles Nationales à Vocation Régionale', accessed 26 Novhttp://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/defense-securite_9035/cooperation-securite-defense_9037/les-ecoles-nationales-vocation-regionale_12533/une-force-integration_26394.html,2009.
37. John M. Kabia, Humanitarian intervention and conflict resolution in West Africa: from ECOMOG to ECOMIL (Farnham: Ashgate,2008), p. 185.
38. 'The Africa-EU strategic partnership', accessed 9 Nov.p.2, http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/pdf/eas2007_joint_strategy_en.pdf,2009.
39. 'The Africa-EU strategic partnership',p. 5.
40. Musifiky Mwanasali, 'From non-interference to non-indifference', in John Akokpari, Angela Ndinga-Muvumba and Tim Murithi, eds, The African Union and its institutions (Sunnyside, SA: Fanele,2009), pp. 42-4.
41. The ASF is divided into five regions, North, South, East, West and Central, and will draw on military and civilian resources from a combination of some or all of these regions.
42. The African Peace Facility is a financing scheme set up by the EU in 2004 to strengthen the ability of the AU to engage in peace support and peacekeeping operations in Africa.
43. Assessment report, Joint Africa-EU Strategy, 9 Oct., accessed 5 Jan. 2009, http://ec.europa.eu/development/icenter/repository/jaes_assessment_report_20091010_en.pdf, 2010.
44. Camilla Elowson, 'The joint Africa-EU strategy: a study of the peace and security partnership', FOI (Swedish Defence Research Agency), March, accessed 5 Jan2009, pp. 62-3, http://www.foi.se/upload/projects/Africa/foir2736.pdf, 2010.
45. See Niagalé Bagayoko, The EU and the member states: the African capabilities building programs (Paris: Centre d'Analyse Stratégique,2007), p. 2:
46. 'France's objective is to make the RECAMP concept "the operator of reference" for the ESDP in Africa, [while] the United Kingdom highly values its bilateral activities, designed to meet African rather than EU requirements.'
47. Personal communications, British and Danish officials, Addis Ababa, 2009.
48. Coordination and disclosure of information are especially poor on action against landmines and on policing.
49. Gideon Rose, 'Neo-classical realism and theories of foreign policy', World Politics 51: 1, 1998, abstract and p. 146.
50. Both Labour and Conservative parties in the UK have pledged to meet the UN aid target of 0.7% of GNP by 2013:, accessed 19 Aug. see http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/12/government-spending-plans-labour-conservative, 2010.
51. Julia Gallagher, 'Healing the scar? Idealizing Britain in Africa', African Affairs108: 432, pp. 435-51.
52. France's two largest trading partners in sub-Saharan Africa are South Africa and Nigeria.
53. Rachel Utley, 'A means to wider ends?', in R. Utley, ed., Major powers and peacekeeping (Aldershot: Ashgate,2006), pp. 65-7.
54. Tom Porteous, Britain in Africa (London: Zed,2008), pp. 5-15.
55. Personal communication, former British naval officer who served under French command of Bosnia in 1999, Portsmouth,2008.
56. France and the UK are expected under article 19 of the Amsterdam Treaty to brief the other member states on UNSC proceedings and to represent the positions of the EU at the Council.
57. Personal communications, UK and French officials in New York, London and Paris, 2008.
58. Anglo-French cooperation on Cǒte d'Ivoire was also motivated by instability in the neighbouring (Mano River Union) states of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
59. Personal communications, former UK officials at the UN in New York, See also Loisel, 'Entente cordiale',2008. p. 55.
60. http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/pdf5/beu_ukfr_nov03_defence, accessed 5 Dec. 2009.
61. However, French concerns about Chinese economic penetration apparently outweigh those of the UK, which in 2009 provided $250,000 to support the China-Africa Business Council:, accessed 18 Marchhttp://www.crid.asso.fr/spip.php?breve58 and http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page18214, 2010.
62. Dyson, 'Convergence and divergence'.
63. Hansard (Commons), 25 March, col. 17WS, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, accessed 4 Jan. 2010,2009, http://services.parliament.uk/hansard/Commons/ByDate/20090325/writtenministerialstatements/part005.html.
64. Elowson, 'The joint Africa-EU strategy',p. 27, n. 48.
65. Hitherto, this relationship seems to have been an exclusive one, although in 2009 the UK government announced its intention to reopen an embassy in Mali in response to the execution of a British national and the wider threat of terrorism, migration and organized crime.