EU development cooperation in post-conflict countries : the case of South Sudan

Abstract

Certain features are not immediately associated with the European Union. One of these unpopular features is post-conflict reconstruction. A country which has just ventured out of war faces the mammoth task of rebuilding itself, as in a post-conflict period the whole system of a state is extremely fragile One difficulty that these states have, stems from the nature of post-conflict which is very unpredictable. These challenges are also met by entities conducting cooperation with the respective country emerging out of conflict, in this case the European Union with the Republic of South Sudan. This thesis adheres to the notion that investing in governance is a main priority for a post-conflict country. The theoretical foundations of post-conflict are laid out to stir this research to scrutinise the European Union's engagement in post-conflict South Sudan. By presenting various aspects of governance, this research revealed that the European Union supports the strengthening of governance in post-conflict South Sudan to a great extent. This level of support is studied through the European Union's development cooperation. Hitherto, the European Commission has published fifteen official documents between the European Union and the Republic of South Sudan. The European Union has also implemented eight projects in the respective country. These official documents and projects served as data in this research to determine the extent to which the EU supports the strengthening of governance in post-conflict South Sudan. All of these documents and projects enabled an exhaustive research. In post-conflict literature, the role of the European Union is under-represented. The findings in this research highlight that the EU is involved in post-conflict reconstruction. Therefore this thesis serves as a potential to bridge the gap in literature about the EU's involvement in post-conflict. This research also led to suggest tasks which the European Union could further undertake when addressing post-conflict.