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This article provides a contextualisation for the study of relations between the European Union and Africa. We identify seven major trends and drivers that have characterised the literature surrounding the relationship: colonial legacy, meanings of partnership, asymmetry, market liberalisation, politicisation, regional actorness and the changing global order. In the literature, these elements tend to be examined separately or in unidirectional perspectives. This article argues, however, that each element invariably influences both sides, although not necessarily in the same manner or to the same effect. In addition, most elements are intertwined and influence each other. These entanglements become visible when examining all seven elements as part of one context. This article suggests that proceeding on an assumption of mutual influence and highlighting the intertwined nature of the different elements constitutes a framework that serves this special issue's efforts to recalibrate African and European perspectives in the scholarship. ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

AbstractSince the G7/G8 was created at Rambouillet in 1975, it has evolved from being only a venue for diplomacy to becoming a diplomatic actor in its own right. Heads of government, foreign ministers, finance ministers, sherpas, and later other ministers who started meeting and communicating annually at G7 summits, began to generate shared meanings and form a collective identity, even if shifting, that was different and distinct from the identities of the member governments. Participating in the G8 has over time changed the interests of its members, including those of its most powerful member, the United States, across a whole range of issue areas. For example, Britain's leadership of the G8 in 2005 and agenda-setting for the Gleneagles summit pushed poverty reduction in Africa to the fore as a policy priority for G8 members, without which it would have fallen much farther down the foreign policy priority ladder, particularly in Washington. The British G8 agenda facilitated activism by anti-poverty NGOs and eminent person diplomats in raising global social consciousness on the issue and demands for change. The effect of G8 agenda-setting supports the argument that the evolution of multilateral organizations into diplomatic actors in their own right has changed the character of contemporary diplomacy in important ways.

AbstractThe nature of the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Africa is in permanent evolution. Historically, the EU mostly dominated the relationship while Africa developed adaptive/reactive strategies. With the establishment of new powers as well as efforts to decolonise the thought and practise of North-South interactions, it is crucial to understand what the future of the relationship could be. The purpose of this paper is to draw lessons from the "Broadening the debate on EU-Africa relations" workshop whose aim was to advance perspectives on EU-Africa relations from the point of view of African scholars. The process consisted of identifying major influential factors in the relationship and assessing what role they played in the past and what role they could play in the future. The results indicate a decline of the importance of EU-dominated factors and the emergence of African agency related factors. We interpret these results as a transformation of this relationship, using the concept "post-normal" to highlight indeterminacy, insolvability and irreversibility as the new context. Implications are discussed regarding the type of research that needs to be developed in order to further investigate this transformation, particularly the meaning of a shifting focus from (normal times) EU-Africa relationship to (post-normal times) Africa-EU relationships.

The nature of the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Africa is in permanent evolution. Historically, the EU mostly dominated the relationship while Africa developed adaptive/reactive strategies. With the establishment of new powers as well as efforts to decolonise the thought and practise of North-South interactions, it is crucial to understand what the future of the relationship could be. The purpose of this paper is to draw lessons from the "Broadening the debate on EU-Africa relations" workshop whose aim was to advance perspectives on EU-Africa relations from the point of view of African scholars. The process consisted of identifying major influential factors in the relationship and assessing what role they played in the past and what role they could play in the future. The results indicate a decline of the importance of EU-dominated factors and the emergence of African agency related factors. We interpret these results as a transformation of this relationship, using the concept "post-normal" to highlight indeterminacy, insolvability and irreversibility as the new context. Implications are discussed regarding the type of research that needs to be developed in order to further investigate this transformation, particularly the meaning of a shifting focus from (normal times) EU-Africa relationship to (post-normal times) Africa-EU relationships. ; The Jean Monnet Activities within the ERASMUS+ programme by the European Union. ; http://www.springer.com/40309 ; pm2021 ; Political Sciences

The nature of the relationship between the European Union (EU) and Africa is in permanent evolution. Historically, the EU mostly dominated the relationship while Africa developed adaptive/reactive strategies. With the establishment of new powers as well as efforts to decolonise the thought and practise of North-South interactions, it is crucial to understand what the future of the relationship could be. The purpose of this paper is to draw lessons from the "Broadening the debate on EU-Africa relations" workshop whose aim was to advance perspectives on EU-Africa relations from the point of view of African scholars. The process consisted of identifying major influential factors in the relationship and assessing what role they played in the past and what role they could play in the future. The results indicate a decline of the importance of EU-dominated factors and the emergence of African agency related factors. We interpret these results as a transformation of this relationship, using the concept "post-normal" to highlight indeterminacy, insolvability and irreversibility as the new context. Implications are discussed regarding the type of research that needs to be developed in order to further investigate this transformation, particularly the meaning of a shifting focus from (normal times) EU-Africa relationship to (post-normal times) Africa-EU relationships.