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ID:
161722
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines an apparent contradiction in the normative order and security culture of the African Union (AU). Many scholars and policy-makers alike have recognized a disjuncture between the norm of anti-imperialism, as expressed through the principle of ‘African solutions to African problems’, and the dependence of the AU on extraregional actors. This article shows that material constraints alone do not explain the AU's behaviour in this regard. Rather, I argue that what appears to be a contradiction in the normative order of the AU is actually a particular practice—a pragmatic and rather automatic cognitive and behavioural trait of AU officials and one that unfolds in the daily operation of the AU. It is a practice wherein AU officials uphold both the anti-imperialist norm and their pragmatic dependence as mutually congruent. This article explores this apparent contradiction, documenting its origins and illustrating its operation in practice. To do so, it provides an account of AU practices from within the AU itself, conceptualizing the AU as a community of practice, and draws on 21 interviews with member state officials from the AU and its wider African Peace and Security Architecture, as well as with European and North American diplomatic officials working alongside the AU in Addis Ababa.
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| 2 |
ID:
108605
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| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Three critical trends in the evolving practice of regional peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa have undermined the usefulness of the common conceptual dichotomy between regional peacekeeping and UN/global peacekeeping. First, sub-Saharan African states have distanced themselves from long-term autonomous regional peacekeeping, and currently favour explicitly interim missions that are a prelude rather than an alternative to UN peacekeeping. Second, the analytically clear line between regional peacekeeping and the separate sub-Saharan African tradition of solidarity deployments (i.e. military support of embattled governments) has in practice become blurred, and the regional vs global peacekeeping dichotomy not only fails to acknowledge this trend but helps to obscure it. Finally, sub-Saharan African states are increasingly addressing regional conflicts by participating in UN operations deployed in the region. UN peacekeeping has thus emerged as a preferred form of regional peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa.
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