European maritime security policy between EUniversalism and contemporary geopolitical realities in Africa

Europe’s instinct to cast its own priorities as universal has become a strategic liability. In a multipolar world where states exercise agency and recast the terms of engagement, partners read Europe’s agenda as self-serving and freighted with colonial legacy, eroding its credibility and room for manoeuvre. To remain a relevant partner, Europe must hold two things together: enough strategic cohesion to act as one, and enough humility to trade universalism for locally grounded, tailored partnership. That means starting not from European values but from the sovereign agency of its partners and placing multipolarity and grounded experience at the centre of strategy.