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The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa pp 3–27Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction: Towards a New Pax Africana

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Abstract

This introductory chapter explores the contemporary relevance of the late Kenyan scholar Ali Mazrui’s concept of Pax Africana: the idea of Africans taking responsibility for making, keeping, and building peace on their own continent. In so doing, it synthesises key insights on the continental peace and security agenda, while charting the efforts of African regional organisations—particularly the African Union (AU)—to prevent, manage, and resolve conflicts, and the role of important external partners like the United Nations (UN). The chapter suggests that while African actors have taken bold steps, including the establishment of new institutional mechanisms, much remains to be done for the achievement of the ambition of Pax Africana. It also includes a detailed outline of the rest of the volume, which urges critical reflection on key challenges such as those related to resources and relations between the AU, Africa’s regional economic communities (RECs), and its major external partners

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See, for example, Mo Ibrahim Foundation, A Decade of African Governance, 2006–2015: 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Index Report (Dakar, October 2016).

  2. 2.

    See Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR), The African Union: Regional and Global Challenges, Seminar Report no. 53 (Cape Town, August 2016).

  3. 3.

    International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), The Responsibility to Protect: Research, Bibliography, Background—Supplementary Volume to the Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2001), p. 101.

  4. 4.

    United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Evaluation of UNDP Assistance to Conflict-Affected Countries (New York, 2006), p. 71.

  5. 5.

    David Fickling, “Q&A: Charles Taylor and Liberia’s Civil Wars”, The Guardian, 3 April 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/apr/03/westafrica.qanda (accessed 27 July 2017).

  6. 6.

    Ali A. Mazrui, Towards a Pax Africana: A Study of Ideology and Ambition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967).

  7. 7.

    Adekeye Adebajo, “Towards a New Pax Africana: Building Peace in Africa”, paper prepared for a Trust Africa web discussion on “Building Sustainable Peace”, September 2006, http://www.trustafrica.org/en/publications-trust/speaches-and-lectures (accessed 21 December 2016).

  8. 8.

    Britain is used synonymously with the United Kingdom (UK) in this volume.

  9. 9.

    CCR, Towards a New Pax Africana: Making, Keeping, and Building Peace in Post–Cold War Africa, Seminar Report no. 46 (Stellenbosch, May 2014), p. 7.

  10. 10.

    Adekeye Adebajo, The Curse of Berlin: Africa After the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), p. 32.

  11. 11.

    Based on data from the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Database, http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/region/SSA (accessed 24 July 2017).

  12. 12.

    In 2015, the World Bank updated the international poverty line to $1.90 a day (based on 2011 prices). This was previously $1.25 a day. For more information, see World Bank , “FAQs: Global Poverty Line Update”, 30 September 2015, http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/brief/global-poverty-line-faq (accessed 24 July 2017).

  13. 13.

    United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), African Union (AU), African Development Bank (AfDB), and UNDP, MDG Report 2015: Assessing Progress in Africa Toward the Millennium Development Goals (Addis Ababa, 2015), pp. 2–4. See Richard M. Mkandawire and Mandivamba Rukuni, “Eradicating Extreme Poverty and Hunger (MDG One)”, in Charles Mutasa and Mark Paterson (eds.), Africa and the Millennium Development Goals: Progress, Problems, and Prospects (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), pp. 107–125.

  14. 14.

    European Commission, Directorate-General for Trade, “European Union, Trade in Goods with Africa (All Countries)”, 3 May 2017, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2011/january/tradoc_147189.pdf (accessed 24 July 2017). The pattern of Africa’s growing trade with the BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is broadly similar. Kudrat Virk, “The ACP, the EU, and the BRICS : Opportunities on the Horizon or Just a Mirage?”, in Annita Montoute and Kudrat Virk (eds.), The ACP Group and the EU Development Partnership: Beyond the North-South Debate (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), p. 326.

  15. 15.

    CCR, The African Union, p. 8.

  16. 16.

    Adekeye Adebajo, “Paradise Lost and Found: The African Union and the European Union”, in Adekeye Adebajo and Kaye Whiteman (eds.), The EU and Africa: From Eurafrique to Afro-Europa (London: Hurst, 2012), p. 50.

  17. 17.

    The Monrovia Group consisted of Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Togo, and eventually the 12 francophone members of the Brazzaville Group (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic [CAR], Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal). Adebajo, “Paradise Lost and Found”, p. 49, and n. 18 on p. 470.

  18. 18.

    Sam G. Amoo, “The OAU and African Conflicts: Past Successes, Present Paralysis, and Future Perspectives”, Working Paper no. 5 (Fairfax, VA: Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution [ICAR], George Mason University, 1992), p. 1. See also Organisation of African Unity (OAU), OAU Charter (Addis Ababa, 25 May 1963), http://www.au2002.gov.za/docs/key_oau/oau_charter.pdf (accessed 7 July 2017).

  19. 19.

    Adebajo, “Paradise Lost and Found”, p. 51.

  20. 20.

    Monde Muyangwa and Margaret A. Vogt, An Assessment of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution, 1993–2000 (New York: International Peace Academy, 2000), p. 5.

  21. 21.

    Sam Ibok, “Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution in Africa”, 2000, p. 5, www.unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/cafrad/unpan001836.pdf (accessed 27 July 2017).

  22. 22.

    Solomon Dersso, “The Quest for Pax Africana: The Case of the Africa Union’s Peace and Security Regime”, African Journal on Conflict Resolution 12, no. 2 (2012), http://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajcr/article/download/83269/73328 (accessed 19 December 2016).

  23. 23.

    This is the date of entry into force of the 2002 Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.

  24. 24.

    “Transforming the Organization of African Unity into the African Union”, Africa Recovery 15, no. 3 (October 2001), p. 22, http://www.un.org/en/africarenewal/vol15no3/153init2.htm (accessed 27 July 2017).

  25. 25.

    AU Commission, Strategic Plan 2009–2012, AU Doc. EX.CL/501 (XV) Rev. 2, 19 May 2009, p. 11.

  26. 26.

    Mazrui, Towards a Pax Africana, p. 203.

  27. 27.

    Abdalla Bujra, “Pan-African Political and Economic Visions of Development from the OAU to the AU: From the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) to the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD)”, Occasional Paper no. 13 (Addis Ababa: Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF), n.d.), p. 17, http://www.bujra.com/documents/Pan-African%20Political%20and%20Economic%20Visions%20of%20Development.pdf (accessed 27 July 2017).

  28. 28.

    Mazrui, Towards a Pax Africana, p. 211.

  29. 29.

    Based on data from the World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Database.

  30. 30.

    UNDP, Human Development Report 2016: Human Development for Everyone (New York, 2016), tab. 1, pp. 200–201; CCR, Building Peace in South Sudan: Problems, Progress, and Prospects, Seminar Report no. 57 (Cape Town, June 2017), p. 20; World Bank , “Country Profile: South Sudan”, http://data.worldbank.org/country/south-sudan (accessed 24 July 2017).

  31. 31.

    Paul D. Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, working paper (Washington, DC: Council on Foreign Relations [CFR], October 2011), https://www.cfr.org/report/african-unions-conflict-management-capabilities (accessed 14 November 2016 and 24 July 2017). See Paul D. Williams and Arthur Boutellis, “Partnership Peacekeeping: Challenges and Opportunities in the United Nations–African Union Relationship”, African Affairs 113, no. 451 (2014), pp. 254–278. See also Lesley Connolly, “AU-UN Partnership Is a Necessity Not an Option”, Global Peace Operations Review, 2 June 2016, http://peaceoperationsreview.org/commentary/au-un-partnership-is-a-necessity-not-an-option (accessed 24 July 2017).

  32. 32.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 1.

  33. 33.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 3.

  34. 34.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 3.

  35. 35.

    Tim Murithi, “The African Union’s Evolving Role in Peace Operations: The African Union Mission in Burundi, the African Union Mission in Sudan, and the African Union Mission in Somalia”, African Security Review 17, no. 1 (2010), p. 73. See Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 3.

  36. 36.

    See Adekeye Adebajo, Mark Paterson, and Jeremy Sarkin (eds.), “Africa’s Responsibility to Protect”, special issue, Global Responsibility to Protect 2, no. 4 (2010).

  37. 37.

    Constitutive Act of the African Union (Lomé, 11 July 2000), art. 4(h).

  38. 38.

    Dersso, “The Quest for Pax Africana”, p. 28.

  39. 39.

    Dersso, “The Quest for Pax Africana”, p. 28.

  40. 40.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 7, and n. 15 on p. 26.

  41. 41.

    AU Commission, Peace and Security Department (PSD), “African Peace and Security Architecture”, http://www.peaceau.org/uploads/african-peace-and-security-architecture-apsa-final.pdf (accessed 24 July 2017).

  42. 42.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 3.

  43. 43.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 4.

  44. 44.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 4.

  45. 45.

    On this point, but in the context of a discussion on South Africa’s foreign policy, see Devon E.A. Curtis, “South Africa’s Peacemaking Efforts in Africa: Ideas, Interests, and Influence”, in Adekeye Adebajo and Kudrat Virk (eds.), Foreign Policy in Post-Apartheid South Africa: Security, Diplomacy and Trade (London: Tauris, 2018), pp. 69–92.

  46. 46.

    Charter of the United Nations (San Francisco, CA, 26 June 1945; entry into force 24 October 1945), chap. VIII, art. 53, http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-viii/index.html (accessed 22 July 2017).

  47. 47.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 4.

  48. 48.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 1. See also Terry M. Mays, “African Solutions for African Problems: The Changing Face of African-Mandated Peace Operations”, Journal of Conflict Studies 23, no. 1 (Spring 2003), pp. 106–125.

  49. 49.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, p. 1.

  50. 50.

    See, for example, Connolly, “AU-UN Partnership Is a Necessity Not an Option”.

  51. 51.

    Williams, “The African Union’s Conflict Management Capabilities”, pp. 1–2. See Williams and Boutellis, “Partnership Peacekeeping”.

  52. 52.

    United Nations, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking, and Peace-Keeping, Report of the Secretary-General Pursuant to the Statement Adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992, UN. Doc. A/47/277, 17 June 1992, para. 15.

  53. 53.

    United Nations, An Agenda for Peace.

  54. 54.

    United Nations, Supplement to An Agenda for Peace: Position Paper of the Secretary General on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organisation, UN Doc. A/50/60, 25 January 1995.

  55. 55.

    Gabriela Monica Lucuta, “Peacemaking, Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding, and Peace Enforcement in the 21st Century”, Insight on Conflict, Peace Direct, 25 April 2014, https://www.insightonconflict.org/blog/2014/04/peacemaking-peacekeeping-peacebuilding-peace-enforcement-21st-century (accessed 27 July 2017).

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  1. N’Zarama Centre for Peacebuilding, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

    Tony Karbo

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. N’Zarama Centre for Peacebuilding, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

    Tony Karbo

  2. Centre for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, South Africa

    Kudrat Virk

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Karbo, T. (2018). Introduction: Towards a New Pax Africana . In: Karbo, T., Virk, K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62202-6_1

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