The security-development nexus and resilience as substitutes for human security in the policies of the European Union: the case of the Sahel

Twenty-five years after the appearance of the concept, human security barely maintains a marginal weight in the EU's strategic acquis. The utility of its original precepts has been limited to serve as an orientation for the adoption of substitute paradigms, such as the security-development nexus and resilience. In this article we aim at studying the differences among these concepts and how their importance in official documents and strategies has developed. We check how the security-development nexus as well as the resilience have prevailed by becoming more practical and acceptable for the EU. In them it has found the theoretical justification for interventions in countries whose "underdevelopment" has been perceived as a threat to European security. A paradigmatic example of this can be found in the Sahel. In this region multiple initiatives following these concepts have been carried out, which has eventually entailed a prioritization of security issues over development ones and the transfer of resources predestined to development towards security matters.