EU PEACEBUILDING · EU peacebuilding outside the neighbourhood: learning from the cases of Afghanistan, Darfur/Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo

The key objectives of this research project are to contribute to a comparative evaluation of EU peacebuilding practices in Afghanistan (2001-2009), Chad/Darfur (2003-2009), and the Democratic Republic of Congo (2001-20009) by focusing on two interrelated issues. First, we examine the nature of the overall political strategy that shaped the EU approach to these conflicts. Second, we evaluate the success or failure of the political strategy against established standards of evaluation that build on an understanding of the interrelationship between internal factors (the capabilities of the EU) and structural factors (outside the control of the EU). Among the internal factors, particular emphasis will be placed on examining the use of a number of instruments managed by the European Commission that seek to promote ‘good governance’, such as programmes that seek to strengthen the rule of law, support the formation of a national police, security sector reform, public administration reform, democratisation, decentralisation of governance at the local level, promotion of human rights, judicial reform and transitional justice. In this assessment a qualitative methodology will be adopted that will allow the voices of local actors to be taken into account. The results will contribute to building models of analysis of EU peacebuilding practices and to an assessment of the achievements and failures of the EU in peacebuilding outside its neighbourhood. In addition, the results will provide policy-makers, NGOs and the media with suggestions about how EU peacebuilding tools and strategies could be improved so as to ensure that its activities contribute to long-term sustainable peace in current conflict zones.