By Pramod Sedhain.
European Union has agreed to send 500 troops to Central African Republic (CAR)- the failed and virtually lawless country. France sought support of coalition in its effort to calm down the situation in Libya, Mali and CAR. However, unwillingness of some other EU members persuaded France to carry out unilateral intervention in Africa – the EU’s doorstep. Other EU nations described the situation as neither a priority nor an emergency. France – Europe’s leading military power – has been continuously advocating for the strongest European defense forces and essential number of troops ready to mobilize for emergency and crisis. Lack of collective action among the member states and common defense policy has been major challenge towards formation of a coalition. European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) is the most controversial issue among the 28 nations. French President Francois Hollande proposed to create a common EU fund to finance any one member state’s military operation. The progress has been delayed.
After UN Security Council unanimously allowed the mandate, French troops along with African peacekeeping force took action in the uncontrolled sectarian violence-escalated country CAR. The regional and international community requested French intervention which still faces lot of challenges at a time when clashes between rival Muslim and Christian militias continues. After the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a military intervention, French and African troops on December 5 intervened to end the chaos that followed Seleka’s coup in March. France deployed 1,600 troops and announced it would send 400 more soldiers to the CAR. 5,000 African Union peacekeepers assisted French force on the ground. However, analysts have to say that at least 10,000 AU troops are necessary to tackle the problem.
Even after the deployment of the French and African Union forces, the progress is slow-paced. CAR sectarian violence has claimed more than 2,000 lives forcing more than one million people to flee. Failed state, lawlessness, rebellion and counter-rebellion, sectarian chaos, spill-over of violence, difficult demography, and political unwillingness are some of the major problems that the foreign forces are currently facing in the CAR.
Challenges remain for the EU force, if deployed, to tackle the wide range of crisis in CAR. UN’s refugee agency UNHCR has estimated that a total of 510,000 people (more half of the capital population) are sheltering in 67 sites in Bangui, or have moved to live with host families due to the ongoing sectarian violence. Some 60 per cent of those displaced are children.
Slow progress: delay formation
EU needs to increase its collective defense ability to ensure its strategic objectives. However, European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) has been the major controversial issue among the members. Defense integration and deployment to prevent international conflicts or reinforce global security policy – independent from Nato – has been EU’s consideration. Groups were launched in 2004 and have been fully operational since 2007, with 1,500 soldiers permanently on standby and member states alternating command of the units. Europe’s contribution to global security and stability is mainly composed of training and support, small-scale rescue missions, conflict prevention and the full-scale separation of warring parties that might involve the whole 60,000-strong force. The headline goal is for a force of 60,000 with supporting air and naval assets. The catalogue of forces to be drawn up will be significantly larger, enabling planners to mix-and-match units for any given contingency. In 2012, Nato handed over its peacekeeping duties in Bosnia-Hercegovina to the European Union. With 6,600 personnel, Eufor is the largest EU military operation to date. EU has smaller missions in Africa: supporting the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo and offering logistical support to the African Union’s mission in the Darfur region of Sudan.
European Council has set itself this goal in September 2013. EU drafted the new command defense strategy which includes the crisis HQ nature, military mobilization as well as command and control. The draft mentions the definition of European defense interests, priority, strategic objective and its geographical priority zones, common defense interests, frame of operational deployments, comprehensive EU security and defense policy, cooperation, military integration, costs of war, and mechanization of force. Decades of reliance on the United States and NATO, EU formed the force in 2004 and have been fully operational since 2007, with 1,500 soldiers permanently on standby. Its tasks include humanitarian and rescue, conflict prevention and peace-keeping, combat forces in crisis management. Recently they added three new tasks to this list – joint disarmament operations, military advice and assistance tasks, and tasks in post-conflict stabilization.
According to EU official website, the Euro-forces are divided in four sectors. Eurofor – regrouping land forces between Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. Eurocorps – regrouping land forces between Germany, Belgium, Spain, France and Luxembourg. Euromarfor – regrouping maritime forces between Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. The European Air Group, regrouping air forces between Germany, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Why EU needs collation defense force?
Most of the EU countries’ military has not been in a modern form. They still have passive strategic mobility, lack of better strong warfare equipment (Navy and Air Power) and determination. EU countries have been debating wide range of issues, including effective defense policy, clear strategic priorities, interests and intention and values. EU has not yet carried out military operation but involved in humanitarian operations. EU has expeditionary power despite the economic hardship. These countries need to have a collective defense strategic focus as an option for an effective force.
Europe’s southern neighborhood, the African countries have been the most fragile states and currently spreading instability across Sahel to the Horn of Africa as well as new emerging challenges in Asia to Middle East. These problems cannot be resolved easily without the demonstration of its military power. EU needs to be able to collectively carry out military operation in future. In the current strategic and military context, EU needs to prepare to use military power, if necessary, in a proper manner. Operational readiness is necessary to protect their interest. Without military might, EU’s international influence will sharply decrease. With the growing strategic threats and challenges, EU’s non-military approach cannot sustain. EU needs a realizable and credible military power as well as common external interests.
Challenges ahead
Integrated Defense policy and wider European strategy has been a challenging task since the beginning of its concept. EU is yet to setup its defense policy. Facing the new rising military powers might overlap EU military capacities and strength. The past two decades have been financially not sound for the EU states when it comes to defense budget. International Institute for Strategic Studies data shows that the Asian defense spending has already exceeded European expenditure in 2012. EU governments spent €194 billion on defense in 2011, down from €251 billion in 2001. Defense Research and Development spending also fell by 14 percent between 2005 and 2010, to €9 billion. The US spends seven times more on research and development than the EU’s 28 member states put together. Russian defense spending exceeded both that of France and Britain in 2011. Russia and China are expected to double their defense spending by 2015 when compared to 2011. China’s defense budget will surpass the collective spending of the European members of NATO by 2020, according to some defense analyst’s projections. In this context, EU nations must be prepared for common strategic view, competitiveness and capability built-up.
