Abstract
The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) can be seen to have a detrimental and divisive
influence on Africa as it relates to concepts of unity and aspects of security.
The UfM and the Barcelona acquis, an established policy regime directed at North Africa and
select countries in the Middle East that has constructed a region of the Mediterranean, has been
used as a starting point for studying the dynamics between the EU and Africa. From studying
this regime it has been possible to observe that rather than its stated aims of creating an area of
peace, prosperity, and stability at the localised scale, it has created the opposite effects of
fragmentation and instability through its divisive foreign policy. It is likely that the same
dynamics, which have produced instability in this area, will be recreated in the rest of Africa
through further policy engagement with the EU, unless redressed.
The dynamics of EU/Africa relations have been conceived as taking place through structural
contrivance and the ensuing emergent dynamics in the EU foreign policy complex. This policycomplex
has been constructed through overlapping layers (over temporal and spatial scales) of
successive policies that reinforce the EU’s methodology and methods of integration,
securitisation, and development. The quality of this structure has been further identified as selfreinforcing,
in addition to presenting “shared values” and history as a basis for “partnership”
with the EU.
African unity is taken to be the antithesis of European integration, which is construed as a
contrived, top-down and externally informed set of structural processes. African unity, on the
other hand, is taken to be organically constructed from the collectively acknowledged
experiences of African peoples under colonial domination, and the intention to construct a
holistic identity on this basis. The presentation in EU foreign policy towards Africa, of “shared
values” therefore, is seen as a re-visioning of this experiential basis, and together with other
policy initiatives, divides not only the African continent practically, but also institutionally and
symbolically.
The dynamics between African and EU informal and formal institutions as they relate to
security, unity, and integration are examined from the methodological perspective of systems,
the theoretical framework of general systems theory, and dynamical systems theory in
particular. Central to the analysis are the concepts of the complex adaptive system, the socioecological
system, and panarchy. Through this application, it has been possible to identify
critical components and variables that contribute towards understanding specified and
generalised resilience, and hence the “security” of African socio-ecological systems and the
panarchy under study.
Security as such has been conceptualised in terms of the dynamics of complex adaptive
systems and resilience, defined as the amount of disturbance a system can take before
transforming into another system state or entering another adaptive cycle phase. In this respect
resilience and security are seen to be determined by structural referential and interdependent
components of the (African) super-ordinate whole, and its interactions with its surrounding
environment.
The EU foreign policy complex can be seen to form a referential environment, through which
selection pressures are applied to African socio-ecological systems via its overarching neo...
D.Litt. et Phil. (International Relations)