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EUNAVFOR in Japanese, that's it… And long live the pirates!

(B2) Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese daily, asked me (through its correspondent in Brussels) to write for its weekly supplement, Global Eye, on the EUNAVFOR Atalanta military operation. The article has just been published (download here). This request was a real gamble: to explain the European context for an audience of which I do not
not at all familiar with the expectations and who perhaps does not know all the complexities of our European "community". But it was interesting because it demonstrates, coming from Japan, how much what Europe is doing can produce changes in mindsets.

Beyond the aspects that we all know about the operation, its issues, its difficulties, its challenges - which I have already described - this article gave me the idea of ​​listing all the changes in strategy involved , or allowed, this anti-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden.

1) Operational reconciliations that the policy may prima facie prohibit.

I had already mentioned, on this blog, the Russian-American rapprochements that took place, while both sides were rather cold since the conflict in Georgia. Similarly, we can also note that the commitment of a Greek ship in the EUNAVFOR operation and now of a Turkish ship in the American coalition operation (CTF-151) could favor some "impromptu" joint operations then that the climate between the two countries is sometimes peppered with various incidents (overflights of areas recognized as territorial by some but not by others).

2) geopolitical advances.

For some countries - the Russia, China... this makes it possible to reintegrate the "concert of nations" smoothly. This could also be the prelude (or not) to a coalition of another nature (USA-Russia-China) on Iran. At least that's what the hope Americans. It is also for these countries - as for others (Japan, India, France, etc.) - the means of affirming their presence in a zone, strategic at the world level, close to Iran, Iraq, Yemen, important oil zones...

3) Small steps towards commitment military most important
international.

In this sense, the commitment of the German navy, in a more offensive operation, is not insignificant. It's one more step, very measured, towards the abandonment of a cautious commitment (I will come back to this). It is the same with theswiss ad of its participation in EUNAVFOR, which also allows the Swiss Confederation to have the opportunity to review its law on external operations abroad. As for Japan, too, it's a novelty, a way of breaking with a certain neutrality, even if the commitment remains limited and under cover of the maritime police...

So I would say, with a bit of irony: fortunately the pirates are there; otherwise they would have had to be invented!

 (NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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