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The Persisting Logics of Coloniality in Global Europe: Explaining the European Union’s Internal Legitimacy and Geopolitical Motivations in Sub-Saharan Africa

Strambeanu, Liviana-Michelle LU (2023) STVM23 20231
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This dissertation addresses the uncertain future of the European Union’s development cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) against the backdrop of officializing the successor of the Cotonou Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The ongoing scholarly debate has been attempting to make sense of the EU’s turn to Africa in a novel phase of cooperation, which has thus far involved the launching of a new and comprehensive financing instrument, nicknamed Global Europe. However, the mainstream debate has proven highly Eurocentric in its realist conceptions, which focus on how the EU’s internal legitimacy and geopolitical motivations constitute potential sources of innovation in development thinking. The purpose of... (More)
This dissertation addresses the uncertain future of the European Union’s development cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) against the backdrop of officializing the successor of the Cotonou Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The ongoing scholarly debate has been attempting to make sense of the EU’s turn to Africa in a novel phase of cooperation, which has thus far involved the launching of a new and comprehensive financing instrument, nicknamed Global Europe. However, the mainstream debate has proven highly Eurocentric in its realist conceptions, which focus on how the EU’s internal legitimacy and geopolitical motivations constitute potential sources of innovation in development thinking. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the ideational continuity that lies at the basis of surface-level changes using coloniality as a central concept. Drawing from 15 semi-structured, systematizing expert interviews, I utilize experts’ interpretive knowledge to provide a decentered worldview of cooperation in which the EU’s partners in SSA become the reference point. My finding is that persisting logics of coloniality are crucial to the ideational structure of the EU as a development actor. Through this finding, I ground both the development and post-/decolonial bodies of literature into the present-day policy context. (Less)
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author
Strambeanu, Liviana-Michelle LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVM23 20231
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
EU development policy, Global Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, realism, coloniality
language
English
additional info
I would like to thank the 15 experts whom I have interviewed within the scope of this dissertation for their openness and interest in my research.
id
9115311
date added to LUP
2023-08-27 16:29:17
date last changed
2023-08-27 16:29:17
@misc{9115311,
  abstract     = {{This dissertation addresses the uncertain future of the European Union’s development cooperation with Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) against the backdrop of officializing the successor of the Cotonou Agreement with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. The ongoing scholarly debate has been attempting to make sense of the EU’s turn to Africa in a novel phase of cooperation, which has thus far involved the launching of a new and comprehensive financing instrument, nicknamed Global Europe. However, the mainstream debate has proven highly Eurocentric in its realist conceptions, which focus on how the EU’s internal legitimacy and geopolitical motivations constitute potential sources of innovation in development thinking. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain the ideational continuity that lies at the basis of surface-level changes using coloniality as a central concept. Drawing from 15 semi-structured, systematizing expert interviews, I utilize experts’ interpretive knowledge to provide a decentered worldview of cooperation in which the EU’s partners in SSA become the reference point. My finding is that persisting logics of coloniality are crucial to the ideational structure of the EU as a development actor. Through this finding, I ground both the development and post-/decolonial bodies of literature into the present-day policy context.}},
  author       = {{Strambeanu, Liviana-Michelle}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The Persisting Logics of Coloniality in Global Europe: Explaining the European Union’s Internal Legitimacy and Geopolitical Motivations in Sub-Saharan Africa}},
  year         = {{2023}},
}