The European conflict prevention agenda twenty years after the Gothenburg Program

Abstract

Conflict prevention has been a key doctrine in crisis management since the nineties. The European Union (EU) incorporated it into its foreign action agenda at that time and, since then, it has gone through different stages, trying to adapt to the increasingly complex and changing international security context. The evolution the European conflict prevention policy has undergone is the object of study of this article, with the purpose of knowing the changes in doctrine and how these have had an impact on a fundamental element for the success of prevention: cooperation with the local and regional actors of the conflictual context in which the intervention occurs. In order to better understand the potential of this relationship, the case of the Economic Community of West African States (CEDEAO) has been selected, due to the important relations it maintains with the EU, its experience in the field of prevention and, therefore, the strategic relevance that this area has for Europe.