Shirking in AU Partnerships: The UN and NATO

Abstract

This chapter discusses the AU’s application of one of the primary strategies of agency slack, called shirking. It primarily examines AU shirking in partnerships with the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). In the case of the UN, the chapter specifically focuses on the contentiousness of the partnership which cause shirking on the part of the AU. It examines the historical relations between the UN and OAU/AU in order to identify the origins of shirking in the partnership. Thereafter it focuses on the divergent as well as overlapping preferences between the two organisations. This includes the political and legal complexities that underpin the relations. The first half of the chapter ends with a discussion of the challenges attendant to African agency in this partnership. This also includes a discussion of whether the lengthy exercise of institutionalising the partnership improved African agency. The chapter also examines the similarly contentious partnership with NATO. It examines the sources of shirking in the partnership. It examines the politics and technicalities surrounding the partnership around various issues such as high-level engagement, conjoined actions, as well as preference divergence and overlaps. The chapter ends with a discussion of the application of two seemingly different forms of shirking for the two partnerships. This includes a discussion of how shirking affects both the AU and the other partners.