Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:03:12.240Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2009

Paul D. Williams
Paul D. Williams*
Affiliation:
Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, 1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20052, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

How 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.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , December 2009 , pp. 603 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

For their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article, thanks go to Brook Beshah, Benedikt Franke, Carolyn Haggis, Kathryn Sturman, Tom Tieku and the journal's anonymous referees. I also acknowledge research support provided by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK), Project Grant RES-223-25-0072.

References

REFERENCES

Acharya, A. & Johnston, A. I.. 2007. ‘Comparing regional institutions’, in Acharya, A. & Johnston, A. I., eds. Crafting Cooperation: regional institutions in comparative perspective. Cambridge University Press, 1–31.Google Scholar
African Union (AU). 2002. Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (PSC Protocol, AU doc. 9.7.2002). www.africa-union.org/root/AU/organs/psc/Protocol_peace%20and%20security.pdf, accessed 1.2.2008.Google Scholar
AU. 2003. ‘Communiqué of the Ninety-first Ordinary Session of the Central Organ of the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution at Ambassadorial Level’, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2.4.2003, available at: www.africa-union.org/root/AU/organs/psc/Protocol_peace%20and%20security.pdf, accessed 1.2.2008.Google Scholar
AU. 2004. ‘Statement of commitment to peace and security in Africa, issued by the Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union’, AU doc. PSC/AHG/ST.(X), 25.5.2004, available at: http://www.africa-union.org/News_Events/Calendar_of_%20Events/Lancement%20PSC/Statement.pdf.Google Scholar
AU. 2005a. ‘Roadmap for the Operationalization of the African Standby Force’, experts' meeting on the relationship between the AU and the Regional Mechanisms for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Addis Ababa, 22–3.3.3005, AU doc.EXP/AU-RECS/ASF/4(i), available at: http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2005/au-gen-23mar.pdf.Google Scholar
AU. 2005b. ‘The common African position on the proposed reform of the United Nations: “The Ezulwini Consensus”’, AU doc. Ext/EX.CL/2(vii), 7–8.3.2005, available at: http://www.africa-union.org/.../7th%20extra%20ordinary%20session%20ECL/Ext%20EXCL2%20VII%20Report.doc.Google Scholar
AU. 2007. ‘Draft background paper on the Review of the Methods of Work of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union’, AU doc. Interoffice memorandum, 27.4.2007. Copy in author's possession.Google Scholar
AU. n.d. ‘About the Peace and Security Department of the African Union: history and background’, www.africa-union.org/root/au/AUC/Departments/PSC/About_US.htm, accessed 1.2.2008.Google Scholar
African Union Executive Council (AUEC). 2008. ‘Decision on the Contributions of Member States’, DOC.EX.CL/369(XII)c, 25–9.1.2008.Google Scholar
Barnett, M. & Finnemore, M.. 1999. ‘The politics, power and pathologies of international organizations’, International Organization 53, 4: 699–732.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, M. & Finnemore, M.. 2004. Rules for the World: international organizations in global politics. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Cilliers, J. & Sturman, K.. 2004. ‘Challenges facing the AU's Peace and Security Council’, African Security Review 13, 1: 97–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claude, I. L. 1966. ‘Collective legitimization as a political function of the United Nations’, International Organization 20, 3: 367–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffield, J. S. 2007. ‘What are international institutions?’, International Studies Review 9, 1: 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franke, B. 2009. Security Cooperation in Africa: a reappraisal. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrikson, A. 1995. ‘The growth of regional organizations and the role of the United Nations’, in Fawcett, L. & Hurrell, A., eds. Regionalism in World Politics. Oxford University Press, 122–68.Google Scholar
Howard, L. M. 2008. UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, A. I. 2001. ‘Treating international institutions as social environments’, International Studies Quarterly 45, 4: 487–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kioko, B. 2003. ‘The right of intervention under the African Union's constitutive act’, International Review of the Red Cross 85: 807–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lecoutre, D. 2005. ‘Les premiers pas du Conseil de paix et de sécurité de l'Union africaine’, Géopolitique Africaine 19–20: 271–82.Google Scholar
Levitt, J. I. 2003. ‘The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: the known unknowns’, Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems 13, Spring: 109–37.Google Scholar
Luck, E. C. 2006. UN Security Council: practice and promise. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makinda, S. M. & Okumu, F. W.. 2008. The African Union. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Muyangwa, M. & Vogt, M. A.. 2000. An Assessment of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, 1993–2000. New York: International Peace Academy.Google Scholar
Sturman, K. & Hayatou, A.. forthcoming. ‘The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: from design to reality’, in Engel, U., Porto, J. G. & Bond, D., eds. Africa's New Peace and Security Architecture. London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
United Nations (UN). 2008. ‘Report of the African Union – United Nations panel on modalities for support to African Union peacekeeping operations’, UN doc. A/63/666-S/2008/813, 31.12.2008.Google Scholar
van Walraven, K. 1999. Dreams of Power: the role of the OAU in the politics of Africa 1963–1993. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Williams, P. D. 2007a. ‘From non-intervention to non-indifference: the origins and development of the African Union's security culture’, African Affairs 106: 253–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, P. D. 2007b. ‘Thinking about security in Africa’, International Affairs 83, 6: 1021–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, P. D. 2008. ‘Keeping the peace in Africa: why “African solutions” are not enough’, Ethics & International Affairs 22, 3: 309–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, P. D. forthcoming. ‘The African Union's peace operations: a comparative analysis’, African Security 2, 2–3.Google Scholar
Yihdego, Z. W. 2007. ‘Ethiopia's military action against the Union of Islamic Courts and others in Somalia’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly 56, 3: 666–76.Google Scholar