Differentiated (dis)integration processes of regional and international organizations seem to have grown over the past years. As a continent in which regional integration efforts and institutions mushroomed in the last decades and created a “spaghetti bowl” of regionalism, Africa is highly relevant for examining and explaining these processes. Against the background of a need to assess and conceptualize (dis)integration beyond Europe, we propose deinstitutionalization to grasp the puzzling bypassing of established institutions for, instead, the emergence of more informalized settings. We analyze two of such processes within the African security regime complex: the Western African response to the Boko Haram uprising in the Lake Chad region and the Southern African response to a coup d’état in Lesotho. Identifying evidence of such processes of deinstitutionalization, we argue that specific internal and external factors constitute drivers for this development. Internally, powerful states and regional hegemons favor domestic narratives and interests over regional ones, whereas externally, international partners create (unintended) incentives for extraversion strategies and disintegration practices in subregions. These dynamics can lead to further deinstitutionalization of the African security complex, such as through ad hoc groups, and eventually disintegrate established paths of African regionalism.

The international response to armed conflict in Africa often takes the form of a regime complex characterized by institu-tional proliferation, overlap, unclear hierarchies, and multiple interconnections. At the same time, the course of conflict is hardly predictable. In such an environment, how can component units (institutional fora) of a regime complex effectively govern through complexity? We explore this question by focusing on the EU as an important actor within regime com-plexes. Building on the regime complexity literature and complexity theory, we identify four conditions. We argue that actors who operate as resource hubs, create complementarity, support system self-organization, and practice adaptive forms of peacebuilding are best placed to manage regime complexity. Empirically we probe these assumptions in the con-text of the Sahelian security regime complex and the role the EU is playing in it.

Interregionalism constitutes a main feature of EU external policy and unfolds specifically in Africa-EU-relations. However, research has merely focused on the EU as a coherent actor, although many EU institutions implement cooperation with African partners. Likewise, principal-agent research, a prominent path to unpack the internals of EU policies, on the EU ' s interregional relations is nascent. This paper seeks to fill these research gaps by applying a principal-agent framework to internal processes of the EU in its Africa relations. After analyzing acts of delegation, it analyzes the discretion of the agents. Pointing specifically to the EU-Africa Partnership on Peace and Security, the study investigates on principal-agent relations from a non-principal-related perspective that puts forward structure-induced and interest-induced factors for increased agent discretion. The results suggest that agents enjoy substantial discretion enabled by the specific environment and agent actions in a policy field of high importance to the principals.

The war in Ukraine and the looming threat of climate change are driving the strategic need to diversify sources of energy, including renewables. Therefore, the European Union aims to develop energy relations with non-EU member states, and Morocco has become a key priority. Both Brussels and Rabat are pursuing ambitious green policies and cooperation initiatives, including on hydrogen. Drawing on theories of international institutions and political economy, this article analyzes hydrogen-related relationship patterns and explains demand and supply factors as drivers of institutionalized energy cooperation. We examine the EU's hydrogen approach and development, its relations with Morocco, and the political interests of both sides. Our analysis shows that the complex interdependencies in the evolving EU-Morocco hydrogen relations indicate that demand can be met by supply. However, challenges remain, including the need to deepen the partnership and prepare the market for commercial hydrogen production.

With the need to decarbonize sectors that have hard-to-abate emissions, hydrogen as an energy carrier has increasingly gained attention. Within the European Union (EU) and its member states, hydrogen is assumed to be key for decarbonizing different sectors in the fight against climate change. Hence, state and private actors have engaged in a variety of attempts, strategies, and interests. However, energy security in Europe cannot be managed by European energy supply alone, despite high targets for the expansion of renewable energies. Rather, the EU will have to continue to rely on energy imports from partner countries. Against this backdrop, this paper seeks to provide an analysis of frame promotion processes generated by the EU’s bet on hydrogen. Drawing on a discourse analysis that is based on more than 32,000 media reports generated through the database Nexis, it conceptualizes the media debate as a carrier of frame alignment efforts by actors with a specific focus on the debates concerning external partner countries. It thus focuses on the discourses on the EU’s hydrogen approach in a complex environment with diverging interests of stakeholders from inside and outside the EU, thereby examining debates that still need further empirical research.

With the mushrooming of overlapping regionalism in Africa, there has also evolved a dense web of relationships between Africa and the European Union (EU) on matters of interregional security relations. In this context, the EU increasingly favours regional groups such as the G5 Sahel instead of its established partnerships with regional economic communities or the African Union. To account for these rather puzzling preferences, this study argues that the EU's emphasis on the security-development-migration nexus overrides rational forum shopping logic, leading to cooperation with the G5 Sahel in response to the crisis in that region rather than with traditional partners embedded in the African Peace and Security Architecture. Drawing on a wide range of data including interviews, this study considers the dynamics of interregional forum shopping and the security-development-migration nexus. It thus relates these to current trends in the Africa-EU partnership on peace and security, considering both sides of the relationship.

This book provides the first comprehensive analysis on the effectiveness of the interregional African-EU Partnership on Peace and Security.

This chapter presents the results of the third case study on the African Union (AU)–European Union (EU) interregional efforts in response to the crisis in Somalia. Since March 2007, the partners conduct joint peace operations in the conflict prone country. This analysis, however, will delimit its scope on the joint engagement between 2007 and 2017. This chapter is structured as follows: First, it provides a brief overview on the conflict background and outlines the various external efforts made. Second, it presents the empirical results on the dependent variable interregional effectiveness. Third, it points to the findings on the conditions explaining interregional effectiveness, relates them to the hypotheses developed in Chapter 2, and considers alternative processes. Lastly, the final section summarises the findings and concludes that the partners achieved a low effectiveness in response to the Somalia crisis. The study argues that frictions in the resource exchange, a medium convergence of the partners, limited internal capabilities, and a hostile conflict setting explain the low degree of effectiveness.

This chapter presents the results of the second case study on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)-European Union (EU) interregional efforts in response to the 2013 crisis in Mali. Between January 2013 and September 2013, the partners conducted joint peace operations after armed groups had seized large areas of Mali. This chapter is structured as follows: First, it provides a brief overview on the conflict background and outlines the various external efforts made in response to the crisis. Second, it presents the empirical results on the dependent variable interregional effectiveness. Third, it points to the findings on the conditions explaining interregional effectiveness, relates them to the hypotheses developed in Chapter 2, and considers alternative processes. Lastly, the final section summarises the key findings and concludes that the partners achieved a medium effectiveness of their efforts. The study argues that a medium resource exchange, a mixed level of convergence between the partners, limited internal capabilities, and a challenging conflict setting explain this medium degree of effectiveness.

This final chapter serves to compare the three case studies in a structured and focused manner, to summarise the main arguments and findings of the book, to assess alternative explanations and mechanisms, and to suggest policy recommendations and implications for future research. As first comprehensive analysis on the effectiveness of interregional security cooperation and the African-EU partnership on peace and security, this book draws the following main conclusion: If an interregional cooperation on a peace operation is able to exchange resources based on mutual resource dependency, establishes convergence based on intensive interaction, benefits from increased (internal) capabilities drawn from a high coherence within both ROs, and acts within a facilitating conflict setting characterised by high domestic support, these conditions increase the probability of interregional effectiveness in terms of both target-centred and actor-centred effectiveness.

Despite the relevance of inter-organizationally managed peace operations, research on their effectiveness is still limited. This study analyses the effectiveness of one inter-organizational peace operation, the AU-EU cooperation in response to the 2013 crisis in the Central African Republic. Conceptualizing effectiveness through an actor- and target-related perspective, it hypothesizes resource exchange, inter-organizational convergence, and a supportive conflict setting as processes conducive to effective action. The findings suggest that the cooperation was effective since the partners exchanged resources, had a high convergence, and acted within a supportive conflict setting.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly everybody around the world. The risk of getting infected as well as the risks posed by the economic consequences of the containment measures do not stop at borders or class differences. How do citizens react to such a transboundary crisis? Do such crises have an equalising effect across different social strata of the population? And who are the groups who favour strong government containment measures such as lockdowns? To answer these questions, we conducted an original survey in Germany and the U.S. during the first wave of the virus in June 2020. We find no support for an equalising effect of the crisis, as our conceptual point of departure - the notion of risk society - would presume. Rather, our results indicate that citizens who perceive that they are financially less well-off have greater economic and health-related fears. They also differ in their preferred government response from those who are economically satisfied.

This chapter embarks on interregionalism as specific research agenda and the Africa-EU partnership on peace and security, before it develops a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyse the effectiveness of interregional security cooperation and its conditions. The theoretical framework sets out the groundwork for the three case studies conducted in Chapters 3, 4, and 5. The chapter puts forward a two-dimensional conceptualisation of effectiveness. First, the actor-centred perspective encapsulates the much-voiced conceptualisation of effectiveness as goal achievement. Second, the target-centred perspective evaluates whether the problem targeted by an operation has been adequately addressed. The book further adopts four processes that are linked to in four dichotomous sets of hypotheses: resource exchange based on resource dependency, convergence of the partners as result of intense interaction, capabilities based on intra-organisational convergence, and a facilitating conflict setting with high domestic support.

This chapter presents the results of the first case study on the African Union (AU)-European Union (EU)) interregional efforts in response to the 2013 crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR). The chapter is structured as follows: First, it provides an overview on the conflict background and outlines the interregional efforts made in response to the crisis. Second, it presents the empirical results on the dependent variable interregional effectiveness in peace operations. Third, it points to the findings on the conditions explaining interregional effectiveness, relates them to the hypotheses developed in Chapter 2, and considers alternative processes. Lastly, it summarises the findings and concludes that the partners achieved a high effectiveness of their efforts in response to the 2013 crisis in the Central African Republic. The study argues that an adequate resource exchange, a remarkable level of convergence between the partners, increased internal capabilities, and a facilitating conflict setting explain this high degree of effectiveness.