This article approaches the security aspects of the Africa-EU Joint Strategy from the perspective of African ownership. Situations of fragility have multilateral and trans-national elements which pose many challenges to leaders, notably on how to achieve a consensus between the many ways in which ‘peace and security’ can be understood, an on how to achieve intra-continental coordi- nation (between the African Union and African regional organisations) and inter-organisational coordination, such as between the European Union and the African Union.