Abstract
The AU has become an essential UN partner in the area of peace and security. However, although progress has been made in developing the institutional capacity of the AU and other sub-regional organizations in planning and fielding peace operations, much work still remains. This chapter discusses the increasing partnerships between the UN, the AU, and sub-regional organizations as a means of responding to the twenty-first-century challenges. With growing institutional capacity, particularly of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and more troop contributions, the AU, regional economic communities (RECs), and regional mechanisms (RMs) have played a key role as first responders in past decades. However, as will be highlighted with the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), considerable strategic, political, operational, and tactical challenges remain which continue as obstacles on the road to stability. Collaborating to fight terrorism in the Sahel is likely to see greater cooperative partnerships, but here sequencing will be paramount to ensuring smooth transitions. The politics and strategic interests underpinning the regional intervention brigade model will be highlighted, looking at the example of the FIB in MONUSCO. The evolving models of partnership and cooperation are discussed, taking into consideration the various challenges and opportunities presented by greater burden-sharing. Responding to complex threats that require more robust use of force will demand a pragmatic division of labor, playing to the competitive advantages of each organization.
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Notes
- 1.
The OAU deployment of a Pan-African Peacekeeping Force in Chad in 1981 is generally considered the first deployment of a peace operation by an African regional organization.
- 2.
This includes UNAMID in Darfur, a joint UN–AU operation, and the MNJTF deployed by the Lake Chad Basin Commission to fight Boko Haram.
- 3.
Here, I examine only the ASF.
- 4.
UNSOA was established in 2009.
- 5.
Annex 1 of the letter contains letter from ECOWAS “Letter dated 5 April 2012 from the President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States addressed to the Secretary-General.”
- 6.
This is an expansion of the typology developed by Koops and Tardy (2015: 61–62). Some of these examples of forms of cooperation should be considered as ideal types, i.e., not actually having achieved the agreed type of cooperation in practice. As for UNAMID, the AU has influence over senior appointments, but the mission is managed and run by the UN.
- 7.
All African members of the Security Council supported the resolution at the time, while Brazil , China , Germany , India , and the Russian Federation abstained.
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Karlsrud, J. (2018). Chapter 5 Competition or Burden-Sharing? UN and Regional Peace Operations in Africa. In: The UN at War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62858-5_6
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