The Role of the European Union in Managing African Crises Between Development Aid and Geopolitical Interests

ABSTRACT This study conducts a comprehensive and critical examination of the interplay between development assistance and strategic geopolitical objectives in the European Union's (EU) engagement with African crises. Although the EU positions itself as a normative power committed to advancing peace, development, and human rights, its practices often reflect a tension between liberal ideals and realist calculations. Drawing on a multi‐theoretical framework, including postcolonial critique, structural realism, and liberal institutionalism, the article explores how development aid functions both as a soft power instrument and a mechanism for crisis management. It analyzes the deployment of conditional aid, the securitization of development, and the instrumental use of humanitarian rhetoric to secure strategic influence, particularly in North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel region. The study also interrogates the dissonance between the EU's professed commitment to equal partnership and the persistence of asymmetrical relationships rooted in postcolonial legacies. The findings of this research reveal significant inconsistencies between the EU's discourse and its foreign policy actions on the ground. These contradictions not only erode the EU's credibility as a reliable partner but also hinder the development of authentic, reciprocal EU–Africa relations. The study ultimately proposes a reimagining of these relations, centered on decolonized aid structures, the genuine empowerment of African stakeholders, and the clear separation of development cooperation from coercive strategic objectives rooted in European self‐interest.