Portraying the European Union’s contribution to crisis management in Africa: CSDP resources, repertoire and local perception(s) in Niger

For over thirty years, the European Union (EU) has been increasingly involved in crisis management in areas confronted with various forms of political violence (civil war, terrorism, piracy, organized crime). While European agents deployed on the grounds of operation mobilise considerable resources to “portray” the EU in action, this dimension has not received much attention in the field of European studies. Based on an ethnographic study of a mission sent under the Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP), this article seeks to describe the daily practices of representation of European agents and question their logic of action. Building on a constructivist perspective, we argue that conscious efforts are made locally to work as much as possible on the CSDP’s image and to produce a political narrative around the intervention. These efforts of legitimation play a central role in the daily life of European agents in a context - such as that of Niger in the 2010s - where the EU’s agenda enjoys little support beyond a small section of the governing elite.