The European Union - Sahel relations: An elusive nexus between development and security.

The European Union (EU) strategy for the Sahel region has simultaneously focused on security and development. For years, the EU has invested massively in the region with this objective. In time, it has even adopted a more comprehensive approach to raise the living standards across the region. Field action and collaboration have been developed. Nevertheless, the EU’s achievements have remained mostly inadequate. Discourse analysis will be the research method that will be employed in the study. EU strategy papers together with EU institutional declarations will lay the ground for the main analyses. Indeed, the literature review will cover secondary sources as well as the primary ones. Case studies will involve individual states (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) along with the G5 Sahel organization and the missions that have convened within the framework of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy. Some reasons explain the EU’s failure, such as the heterogeneity of Sahel: Stretching on more than three million square kilometres, it is a vast, diverse, and complex region encompassing multiple countries and ethnicities. Security deserves attention as well, both at regional and international levels. Limited resources at the EU’s (and its member states’) disposal is also an obstacle for coherent development and security strategies. So is the coordination challenges: The EU member states have different priorities and approaches to addressing the challenges in the Sahel region. Last, but not least, political instability makes it extremely difficult to implement effective and sustainable development and security programs.