Preventing what for whom? EU conflict prevention efforts amid pursuit of autonomy

Conflict prevention has formed an integral part of the European Union’s (EU) Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) since the early 2000s, with investments in civilian peacebuilding and conflict prevention suiting well with the Union’s ‘civilian or ‘normative’ power role. The transforming international order is, however, changing the strategic environment also for the Union’s and its member states’ conflict prevention and peacebuilding efforts. In this light, the article analyses the implications of the evolving strategic autonomy debate for the EU’s role conception and concrete action in the realm of conflict prevention. While the search for a more capable EU in security and defence does not automatically counter the Union’s self-conception as a conflict preventor and peacebuilder, it does appear to introduce meaningful shifts in the core norms and values guiding its foreign policy behaviour in conflict situations. An analysis of the EU’s rhetoric and concrete uses of its conflict prevention and peacebuilding tools in recent years in the context of Africa indicates a growing centralisation of security and geopolitical considerations at the expense of the core ethos of conflict prevention.