Janus advances? An analysis of EC development policy and the 2005 amended Cotonou Partnership Agreement

Abstract:

This article suggests that an inherent duality of poverty-reduction goals and security objectives now typifies EU development policy. The EC is attempting in Janus fashion to incorporate seemingly oppositional dynamics into its development policy, with the result that development policy itself now operates more robustly as official EU foreign policy. Both outcomes may be observed in the 2005 Amended Cotonou Partnership Agreement and the 2006 Development Consensus. While adhering to the original development objective of poverty reduction, the CPA represents an apparent break from poverty-reduction policies established in the 2000 CPA. The rise of politicized and especially securitized principles have had unsettling effects on the objectives of EC development policy while enhancing the impact of EU foreign policy.