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Squaring the Circle: The Role of the African Peace and Security Architecture

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The Palgrave Handbook of Peacebuilding in Africa

Abstract

This chapter provides a critical assessment of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). It argues against viewing the APSA through a narrow military prism, instead calling for a broader focus on the full spectrum of conflict prevention strategies, and a more proactive approach that addresses the structural causes of conflict in Africa. Though the APSA has included the creation of conflict early warning and early response instruments, it continues to have a reactive stance, lacking adequate mechanisms for decisive and timely preventive action. This reflects the de-linking of governance and human rights institutions as a major defect in the APSA. The chapter offers several recommendations to strengthen the APSA, including integration with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), and new mechanisms to strengthen compliance with human rights and governance standards, while urging greater political will and resource mobilisation for conflict prevention.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Supplement to An Agenda for Peace: Position Paper of the Secretary-General on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations, UN Doc. A/50/60-S/1995/1, 1995, para. 64.

  2. 2.

    Stale Ulriksen and Giovanna Bono, “Conclusion: Economic and Diplomatic Tools vs. Military Might”, International Peacekeeping 11, no. 3 (2004), p. 561.

  3. 3.

    Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR), “Towards a New Pax Africana: Making, Keeping, and Building Peace in Africa”, concept paper for research seminar, 28–30 August 2013, Stellenbosch, South Africa, p. 6.

  4. 4.

    See United Nations Association in Canada, “UN Peacekeeping: From Peacekeeping to Peacebuilding”, http://www.unac.org/peacekeeping/en/un-peacekeeping/fact-sheets/from-peacekeeping-to-peacebuilding (accessed 26 August 2013).

  5. 5.

    George B.N. Ayittey, “African Solutions to African Problems”, speech at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States (US), 22 January, 2010, https://freeafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/012210-African-Solutions-For-African-Problems-Calvin-College.pdf (accessed 28 July 2016). The Peace and Security Council (PSC) protocol also provides for partnerships between the African Union (AU) on the one hand, and the UN and other relevant international stakeholders on the other. AU, Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, First Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, 9 July 2002, Durban, South Africa.

  6. 6.

    Arvid Ekengard, The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS): Experiences and Lessons Learned (Stockholm: Swedish Defence Research Agency, August 2008).

  7. 7.

    CCR, Towards a New Pax Africana: Making, Keeping, and Building Peace in Post-Cold War Africa, Seminar Report no. 46 (Stellenbosch, June 2014), p. 21.

  8. 8.

    Human Rights Watch, “Lessons Learned from Darfur’s Peacekeepers”, https://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/sudan0907/10.htm (accessed 18 July 2016).

  9. 9.

    The fourth recital of the preamble of the PSC Protocol states that pursuant to a decision of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government in Lusaka, Zambia, in July 2001, the Assembly “decided to incorporate the Central Organ of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict, Prevention, Management, and Resolution as one of the organs of the Union”.

  10. 10.

    See Article 2 of the PSC Protocol.

  11. 11.

    See Article 7 of the PSC Protocol.

  12. 12.

    AU Peace and Security Council, “Communiqué”, PSC/PR/COMM.(DLXV), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 17 December 2015, para 13.

  13. 13.

    According to Article 8(10)(c) of the PSC Protocol.

  14. 14.

    Greg Puley, “The Responsibility to Protect: East, West, and Southern African Perspectives on Preventing and Responding to Humanitarian Crises”, Working Paper no. 05-5 (Waterloo, ON: Project Ploughshares, 2005).

  15. 15.

    Jeremy I. Levitt, “The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: The Known Unknowns”, Transnational Law & Contemporary Problems 13, no. 1 (2003), p. 116.

  16. 16.

    The AU Constitutive Act of 2000, in general terms, provides that the AU Assembly will ensure compliance with the decisions of the AU pursuant to Article 23(2) of the act. Although this may apply to the decisions of the PSC as well, it is unclear as to what measures the AU Assembly may take, and the process is certain to be lengthy and ineffective.

  17. 17.

    See Article 12 of the PSC Protocol.

  18. 18.

    Institute for Security Studies (ISS), “An Early Warning on Africa’s Early Warning System”, Peace and Security Council Report, 11 August 2015, https://www.issafrica.org/pscreport/addis-insights/an-early-warning-on-africas-early-warning-system (accessed 28 July 2016).

  19. 19.

    See Article 11 of the PSC Protocol.

  20. 20.

    In 2016, the five-member panel comprised: former Angolan government minister Albina Faria de Assis Pereira Africano , from Central Africa; former Ugandan vice-president Speciosa Wandira Kazibwe , from Eastern Africa; former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, from North Africa; former Mozambican prime minister Luisa Diogo, from Southern Africa; and former Togolese prime minister and former OAU secretary-general Edem Kodjo , from Western Africa. African Union, “Panel of the Wise (PoW)”, Addis Ababa, 9 March 2016, http://www.peaceau.org/en/page/29-panel-of-the-wise-pow (accessed on 18 July 2016).

  21. 21.

    The Panel builds on a long-standing African tradition of mediation by African “elder statesmen” to help bring an end to armed conflicts, and is seemingly a derivative of the Council of Elders of the Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) peace and security architecture.

  22. 22.

    Alex Vines, “A Decade of African Peace and Security Architecture”, International Affairs 89, no. 1 (2013), p. 99.

  23. 23.

    ISS, “New Panel of the Wise Has a Lot on Its Plate”, Peace and Security Council Report, 1 October 2014, https://www.issafrica.org/pscreport/addis-insights/new-panel-of-the-wise-has-a-lot-on-its-plate (accessed 20 July 2016).

  24. 24.

    Article 4(j) of the 2000 AU Constitutive Act provides for “the right of Member States to request intervention from the Union in order to restore peace and security”. See also Article 13(1) of the PSC Protocol.

  25. 25.

    See Jakkie Cilliers, “The African Standby Force: An Update on Progress”, Paper no. 160 (Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies, March 2008), p. 4.

  26. 26.

    See Article 13 of the PSC Protocol.

  27. 27.

    Solomon Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force Within the African Peace and Security Architecture”, Paper no. 209 (Pretoria: ISS, January 2010), p. 7.

  28. 28.

    Puley, “The Responsibility to Protect”, pp. 3–4.

  29. 29.

    See AU, “Policy Framework for the Establishment of the African Standby Force and the Military Staff Committee”, Exp/ASF-MSC/2 (I), document adopted by the Third Meeting of African Chiefs of Defense Staff, Addis Ababa, 15–16 May 2003, http://www.peaceau.org/uploads/asf-policy-framework-en.pdf (accessed 29 July 2016).

  30. 30.

    Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force”, p. 7.

  31. 31.

    Cilliers, “The African Standby Force”, p. 4.

  32. 32.

    The regional standby forces were initially referred to as regional standby “brigades”. However, the term “forces” is now used, given that they may have more personnel than the 1,500 to 3,500 personnel required for a standard “brigade” and that they will include military as well as civilian and police components.

  33. 33.

    Article 15 of the PSC Protocol.

  34. 34.

    Douglas C. Peifer, “Introduction to Genocide”, in Douglas C. Peifer (ed.), Stopping Mass Killings in Africa: Genocide, Airpower, and Intervention (Montgomery, AL: Air University Press, 2008), pp. 1–20, 6.

  35. 35.

    General Martin Luther Agwai, Force Commander of AU–UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), quoted in Kofi Annan, “Establishing a Culture of Prevention” (Lund: Raoul Wallenberg Institute, 2008), p. 7, http://www.rwi.lu.se/index.shtml (accessed 25 August 2013).

  36. 36.

    Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force”, p. 7.

  37. 37.

    Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force”, pp. 7, 18.

  38. 38.

    Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force”, p. 46.

  39. 39.

    United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations [Brahimi Report], UN Doc. A/55/305-S/2000/809, 21 August 2000, p. xi and paras. 48–64.

  40. 40.

    Cilliers, “The African Standby Force”, p. 7.

  41. 41.

    Monica Juma and Aida Mengistu, “The Infrastructure of Peace in Africa: Assessing the Peace-Building Capacity of African Institutions” (New York: International Peace Academy, September 2002).

  42. 42.

    Human Rights Watch, Liberia: Waging War to Keep the Peace: The ECOMOG Intervention and Human Rights, Vol. 5, No. 6 (June 1993), https://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/liberia/ (accessed 8 August 2016).

  43. 43.

    CCR, Towards a New Pax Africana, p. 11.

  44. 44.

    Sam B. Ibok, “The OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution” (Addis Ababa, 1999), pp. 7–9, http://www.dpmf.org/conflict-sam.html (accessed 26 August 2013).

  45. 45.

    Dan Kuwali, “How to Eradicate Extremism”, Mail & Guardian, Thought Leader blog, 6 May 2015, http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/readerblog/2015/05/06/how-to-eradicate-extremism/ (accessed 7 August 2016).

  46. 46.

    Kristiana Powell, “The African Union’s Emerging Peace and Security Regime: Opportunities and Challenges for Delivering the Responsibility to Protect”, Monograph no. 119 (Pretoria: ISS, 2005), p. 69.

  47. 47.

    AU, “The African Union Adopts the AU Peace Fund”, press release, Kigali, Rwanda, 18 July 2016, http://www.peaceau.org/uploads/auc-pr-peacefund-18.07.2016.pdf (accessed 7 August 2016).

  48. 48.

    Vines, “A Decade of African Peace and Security Architecture”, p. 99.

  49. 49.

    Jaïr van der Lijn, “Scenarios for Intervention in Darfur”, Utrecht Journal of International and European Law 24, no. 65 (2007), p. 45.

  50. 50.

    The African Union-European Union Partnership, “Financing the Partnership”, http://www.africa-eu-partnership.org/en/about-us/financing-partnership (accessed 7 August 2016).

  51. 51.

    Solomon Dersso, “Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the OAU through the Prism of the Launch of the ‘Annual Review of the PSC 2012/2013’”, Addis Standard, 27 March 2013, http://addisstandard.com/peace-and-security-in-africa-a-compressive-review-looks-at-the-challenges-and-opportunities-ahead-2 (accessed 23 August 2013).

  52. 52.

    UN Security Council, Report of the Secretary-General, UN Doc. S/2008/178, 14 March 2008.

  53. 53.

    Ekengard, The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).

  54. 54.

    Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force”, p. 15.

  55. 55.

    Puley, “The Responsibility to Protect”, pp. 3, 19–20.

  56. 56.

    Puley, “The Responsibility to Protect”, pp. 19–20; African Union, “Final Communiqué: African Mini-Summit on Darfur”, Tripoli, Libya, 17 October 2004, p. 2. See also Alex J. Bellamy, “Whither the Responsibility to Protect? Humanitarian Intervention and the 2005 World Summit”, Ethics & International Affairs 20, no. 2 (2006), p. 160.

  57. 57.

    Binaifer Nowrojee, “Africa on Its Own: Regional Intervention and Human Rights”, Human Rights Watch World Report, 2004, p. 1, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/wr2k4/download/4.pdf (accessed 24 August 2013).

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    Dan Kuwali, “Just Peace: Achieving Peace, Justice, and Development in Post Conflict African Countries”, policy paper, Africa Peacebuilding Network, Social Science Research Council, New York, 2014, http://webarchive.ssrc.org/workingpapers/APN_WorkingPapers02_Kuwali.pdf.

  59. 59.

    Kuwali, “Just Peace”.

  60. 60.

    Jakkie Cilliers and Kathryn Sturman, “The Right of Intervention: Enforcement Challenges for the African Union”, African Security Review 11, no. 3 (2002), pp. 98–102.

  61. 61.

    Cilliers and Sturman, “The Right of Intervention”.

  62. 62.

    Cilliers and Sturman, “The Right of Intervention”, pp. 98–102.

  63. 63.

    Dersso, “Reflections on the 50th Anniversary of the OAU”.

  64. 64.

    Mo Ibrahim Foundation, “Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG)”, http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag/ (accessed 7 August 2016).

  65. 65.

    OAU, Towards a Conference on Security, Stability, Development, and Cooperation in Africa [Kampala Document], 19–22 May 1991, Kampala, Uganda, pp. 14–15.

  66. 66.

    Gerhard Hugo, “The Pan-African Parliament: Is the Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?”, Paper no. 168 (Pretoria: ISS, 2008), p. 1.

  67. 67.

    Dersso, “The Role and Place of the African Standby Force”, p. 7.

  68. 68.

    United Nations, Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes: A Tool for Prevention, 2014, http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/framework%20of%20analysis%20for%20atrocity%20crimes_en.pdf (accessed 30 April 2015).

  69. 69.

    See OAU, Bamako Declaration on an African Common Position on the Illicit Proliferation, Circulation, and Trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons, 1 December 2000, http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/portal/issueareas/measures/Measur_pdf/r_%20measur_pdf/Africa/20010309_sadc_declaration.pdf (accessed 15 March 2009).

  70. 70.

    United Nations, Declaration on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, UN Doc. GA/57/L.2/Rev.1, 16 September 2002.

  71. 71.

    Ibrahim A. Gambari, “The Role of Foreign Intervention in the Reconstruction of Africa’s Collapsed and Collapsing States”, address at the School of Advanced and International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC, 1994.

  72. 72.

    Adekeye Adebajo, “The Elusive Quest for Pax Africana Continues”, Business Day, 27 January 2013. See also Ali A. Mazrui, Towards a Pax Africana: A Study of Ideology and Ambition (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1967).

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  1. Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria, Tshwane (Pretoria), South Africa

    Dan Kuwali

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  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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Kuwali, D. (2018). Squaring the Circle: The Role of the African Peace and Security Architecture. 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_3

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