Marie Gibert

Marie Gibert
Address:
E-Mail: mariegibert@soas.ac.uk
Telephone:

Project

Regional Security: A New Opportunity for Multilateral Cooperation Between the EU and West Africa?

How is the political relationship between European powers and their West African former colonies changing as a result of the European Union’s (EU) growing role in security issues in West Africa? The proposed research project will explore the contradictions that underlie the European foreign policy project in West Africa. Academic literature has nearly exclusively covered the EU’s developmental role throughout and after the Cold War era, and neglected to explore the political dynamics between both regional groups of countries. These dynamics are still mainly characterised by the long-lived bilateralism between the former colonial powers and colonies, a bilateralism that runs counter to the European discourse in favour of multilateralism and which hampers regional cooperation both in Europe and in West Africa. The EU-West African relationship will therefore be analysed in the light of each region’s agenda and of a broader regionalisation and multilateralisation project that deals with security and foreign policy issues in a globalised context.

Expertise

Publications

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

CV

Education

Since Sept. 2004 PhD in African Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. Thesis title: ‘Regional Security: A New Opportunity for Multilateral Cooperation Between West Africa and the European Union?’ (supervisor: Dr. Tom Young).

July 2005 French BA (Licence) in English Literature and Civilisation, Université de Rennes II (Rennes, France).

2003-2004 MSc African Politics (with Merit), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. Dissertation title: ‘How Has the “War on Terror” Changed the Conflict Resolution and Development Agendas in the IGAD-Subregion?’.

1999-2003 French Diploma (Diplôme de l’IEP or MA) in Political Science, Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Lille, France); German Diploma (Diplom in Sozialwissenschaften or MA), in Social Sciences, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (Münster, Germany), with a focus on European studies. Dissertation title: ‘Regional Integration: Hope for Africa’s development – The example of the East African Community’.

Teaching and Research Experience

2008-2009 Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille, France: Lecturer, ‘African Conflicts in International Relations (1945-2008)’ (4th year optional course – first term).

Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille, France: Lecturer on the new Virtual Learning Project, ‘African Conflicts in International Relations Since 1945’ (5th year optional course – second term).

2007-2008 School of Oriental and African Studies: Lecturer, ‘Politics of Development in Africa’ (undergraduate course).

Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille, France: Lecturer, ‘African Conflicts in International Relations (1945-2005)’ (4th year optional course).

2006-2007 School of Oriental and African Studies: Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, ‘Comparative and International Politics’.

Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Lille, France: Lecturer, ‘African Conflicts in International Relations (1945-2005)’ (4th year optional course).

April-June 2006 European Union Institute for Security Studies (EU-ISS), Paris: Visiting Fellow.

Summer 2005 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: Summer Workshop Tutor ‘Introduction to Political Studies’.

2004-2005 School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, ‘State and Society in Asia and Africa’ and ‘Introduction to Political Studies’.

Other Academic Interests and Activities

2006-2007 Politics research students’ representative and member of the SOAS Research Student representatives’ forum.

2006-2008 Member and grant-recipient of the joint research and training programme “European Foreign and Security Policy Studies” of the foundations Compagnia di San Paolo, Torino/Italy, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Stockholm/Sweden, and VolkswagenStiftung, Hanover/Germany.

2005-2008 Member of the research group ‘European Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management Policies’ (EUCPCM), supported by the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES).

Languages

Other Information

Conference Papers

4th-7th June 2009 ‘Europe in Africa: The Same Old Story?’, Third AEGIS Euroconference on African Studies, Leipzig (Germany).

11th-13th Sept. 2008 ‘The European Union in Africa: A European ‘Renaissance’ in Africa?’, African Studies Association United Kingdom (ASAUK) 2008 Conference, University of Central Lancashire, Preston.

3rd-5th Sept. 2007 ‘The European Union and Its Member-States in Africa: On the Way to Europeanization?’, UACES 37th Annual Conference and 12th Research Conference, University of Portsmouth.

11th-14th July 2007 ‘Regionalisation as a Conflict Prevention Tool: Western Import or West African Reality?’, AEGIS Euroconference on African Studies, Leiden.

5th-6th July 2007 ‘Regionalised security: a European solution to (West) African instability?’, Final Conference of the UACES research group on European Union Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management (EUCPCM), Fondation Universitaire, Brussels.

1st December 2006 ‘The European Union in West Africa: From Developmental to Diplomatic Partner?’, 3rd workshop of the UACES research group on European Union Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management (EUCPCM), European Studies Centre of Sciences Po, Paris.

27th October 2006 ‘Europe and West Africa: A Common Preference for Peaceful Crisis Resolution?’, PhD Students’ Workshop ‘Are European Preferences Shared By Others? The Fate of European Norms in a Globalized World’, European Studies Centre of Sciences Po and Centre of International Relations Research (CERI), Paris.

7th–9th Sept. 2006 ‘The European Union: A Legitimate Actor in Africa’s Fragile States? Insights from West Africa’, 1st European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Graduate Conference, University of Essex.

16th June 2006 ‘The European Union and Its Member-States: Complementarity, Coordination or Competition? Insights from the European Union’s Conflict Prevention Policy in West Africa’, 2nd workshop of the UACES research group on European Union Conflict Prevention and Crisis Management (EUCPCM), Loughborough University.

10th-11th Feb. 2006 ‘The European Common Foreign and Security Policy: Towards the End of Colonial Bilateralism in Africa? Insights From West Africa’, 10th Annual Graduate Student Conference, Georgetown University, Washington, DC.

26th-27th January 2006 ‘European Engagement in West Africa’, Africa-Workshop, Institute for Peace Support and Conflict Management, Austrian National Defence Academy, Vienna.

23rd April 2005 ‘The European Foreign Policy: Providing a ‘Structural’ Alternative in a Unipolar World?’ at the FORNET (Research Network on European Foreign Policy) 2005 Plenary Meeting, Brussels.