Enhancing EU peacekeeping capabilities

As part of its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) from 2002 until February 2014, the European Union (EU) undertook over thirty overseas operations, using civilian and military instruments, in several countries, spread across three continents (Europe, Africa and Asia). Sixteen of these operations are ongoing, with eighteen completed. Peacekeeping missions play a central role to the European Union’s (EU) Development Policy and the 2016 Global Strategy for EU Foreign and Security Policy. Using content analysis on the 2016 Global Strategy and 2016-2017 CSDP Annual Reports, this research aims to use the case studies of the EU Capacity Building Mission Sahel Mali and EU Training M Mali missions to analyse whether the 2016 Global Strategy has had an influence on the two ongoing CSDP missions in Mali. These missions, initiated by the EU and its Member States, are viewed as essential in addressing key issues in the Sahel region including: extreme poverty, frequent food and nutrition crises, conflict, high population growth rates, institutional weaknesses, irregular migration and related crimes such as human trafficking and migrant smuggling. This thesis uses Chris Hills Capabilities-Expectations Gap to determine whether the gap between what the EU is expected to do by the international community and what the EU is actually able to deliver still exists despite developments in EU foreign policy. This thesis analyses sections of the 2016 EU Global Strategy determined by the frequency of terms and concepts within the Strategy and provides evidence from the Annual CSDP Reports from 2016-2017 to suggest that there is a strong correlation between the release of the EU Global Strategy in 2016 and the two ongoing CSDP Missions in Mali, suggesting influence