Regionalising Security: The APSA and External Partners

Abstract

In assessing change through a New Institutionalist lens, changes within an institution often require the inclusion of new structures. Certainly, in assessing security as a potential change, the inclusion of new structures, which are able to support new capabilities and processes, is worth examination. The most important of these new structures for EU-AU security cooperation is, of course, the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). This chapter provides an overview of development of regional capabilities for governing security leading to the creation of the APSA. Unlike other assessments of the APSA, however, this chapter also seeks to highlight the role of key external actors: the United States, China and the EU. Moreover, it evaluates the consolidation of regional capabilities, including the global and regional legal instruments that account for the development of regional security institutions.