Supporting African Partner States Through European Military Assistance Programmes

Abstract

As the West debates defence spending to counter China and Russia, an affordable approach for constructive influence is possible through advising missions that create Sustainable Development Engineering Corps (SDECs) in militaries throughout Africa. Through interviews and surveys of defence officials, Nils Zimmermann, Ivor Wiltenburg and Jahara Matisek find strong support for using European militaries for cost-effective contributions to Western global force posture by creating and deploying advisor units focused on helping African partner militaries establish SDECs. ◼