The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: evaluating an embryonic international institution

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 603-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
International Security ◽  
Institutional Design ◽  
African Union ◽  
International Institution ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Five Elements ◽  
Efficiency And Productivity

ABSTRACTHow has the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union helped promote peace, security and stability on the African continent? This article assesses the PSC's activities in light of insights generated by the literature on international security institutions. After providing an overview of the immediate origins of the PSC, it discusses five elements of the Council's institutional design. It then evaluates the PSC's activities during its first five years (2004–9), by examining the Council's political relevance, its efficiency and productivity, and whether it is the institution best placed to deal with the continent's security problems. It concludes that the PSC's future will hinge on whether more of the African Union's members can be persuaded to devote more serious levels of resources (human and financial) to it.

‘Triangular’ Relationships between the United Nations and African Regional and Sub-regional Organizations in Maintaining Peace

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-345
Author(s):  
Emanuele Cimiotta
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Political Control ◽  
African Union ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Triangular Relationships

Over the past few years, the relationships between the United Nations (‘un’), regional and sub-regional organizations in maintaining peace and security in Africa have evolved. The African Union (‘au’) began coordinating enforcement actions conducted by African sub-regional organizations with the authorisation of the un Security Council (‘unsc’), which maintained its political control over them. The un Charter and relevant legal regimes of those organizations seem to allow this kind of relationship. Such a trend may explain, in part, the unsc’s most recent practice of authorising regional and sub-regional enforcement actions under Chapter vii of the un Charter, instead of Chapter viii. In carrying out those authorised military operations, African regional and/or sub-regional organizations perform their own statutory powers and pursue their own statutory objectives at the continental level. They do not act as ‘decentralised organs’ of the un.

A Regional Responsibility to Protect? Towards ‘Enhancing Regional Action’ in Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 270-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Obinna Franklin Ifediora
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
African Union ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Great Opportunity ◽  
Peaceful Settlement ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Governance Architecture

Ten years after its endorsement by the un General Assembly, the operationalisation of the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) concept faces challenges of consistency and capacity. Too often, global politics at the world’s premier intergovernmental body, the un, hampers effective action. Regional arrangements have a crucial role to play in this regard, however, questions of capacity to live up to this expectation remain. The Peace and Security Council (psc) of the African Union (au), mandated to implement the African Peace and Security Architecture (apsa) has primarily focused on developing the African Standby Force (asf), which the au succeeded in bringing to its ‘Full Operational Capability’ (foc) in December 2015 for implementation. Deploying the asf in deserving cases, for instance in Burundi in 2016, raises issues of sovereign consent, risks and costs. To avoid these complexities, this article argues that regional arrangements under Chapter viii are primarily pacific tools of the Security Council; focusing on harnessing these peaceful mechanisms of conflict prevention offers potential for consistent and effective ‘first responses’ to crises, with fewer complications. Regional arrangements as mediation tools present great opportunity for peaceful settlement of local disputes. Support for mediation is typically by peace operations. This article proposes that mediation support by a ‘preventive arbitration’ tool through ‘popular participation’ under the African Governance Architecture (aga) may have a pivotal role in this respect. Therefore, a regional responsibility to protect, through greater mediation, requires mediating challenges of governance in Africa.

scholarly journals The African Union, Constitutionalism and Power-Sharing

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stef Vandeginste
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
African Union ◽  
Constitutional Rule ◽  
Member States ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
The Past ◽  
Normative Framework ◽  
Peace And Security

AbstractOver the past decade, the African Union has put in place a normative framework to promote constitutional rule and, in particular, orderly constitutional transfers of power in its member states. Its Peace and Security Council opposes unconstitutional changes of government, including through the use of sanctions. The PSC systematically advocates a return to constitutional order, in particular through free and fair elections, as a remedy for unconstitutional changes of government. However, while opposing unconstitutional means of obtaining or transferring power, the AU has been generally supportive of the use of power-sharing agreements as an instrument of negotiated conflict settlement. Most power-sharing agreements do not accord with the prevailing constitutional order. This dual policy, of opposing certain types of unconstitutional change of government while advocating power-sharing agreements, poses an obvious challenge for the consistency of AU policy.

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