The EU, the Somalia Challenge, and Counterpiracy: Towards a Comprehensive Approach?

Somalia is recognized as posing one of the most intractable challenges to the international community. The country's problems range from violent conflict and the failure to agree on sustainable government structures to humanitarian disasters.

Somalia also provides a hub for terrorists and organized crime, of which piracy is the most prominent aspect, as it not only endangers humanitarian aid deliveries but also poses a risk to maritime trade. The European Union (EU) is one of the few actors equipped to take up the Somali challenge with a variety of instruments and to support the process of finding a political solution. This article illustrates the EU's multifaceted effort to engage with the Somali crisis, which has been labelled a 'comprehensive approach'. It places particular emphasis on the Atalanta naval mission, which is widely regarded as the strongest component in the effort to deal with one of the transnational challenges emanating from the region. The aim of the article is to assess the EU's approach towards Somalia in general and piracy in particular and to identify opportunities, challenges, and limits in tackling a complex crisis of this kind in a comprehensive manner.