Fusing Security and Development: Just Another Euro-platitude?

Abstract: This article reveals that the European Union has made some modest progress towards according concrete substance to the security-development link. In particular, an increased focus on supporting governance reforms acts as a potential link between security and development objectives within several layers of European policies. However, what the link means in practice is still contested. Few in the EU would doubt that security and development go together; but differences abound over what this implies for the allocation of finite resources and the nature of diplomatic engagements. The EU still has no clearly thought-out vision of the balance or direction of causality between these two policy goals, but rather an ad hoc approach based on the rather easy assumption that 'all good things go together'.