Abstract

Over the last decade and a half, Africa’s peace operations capacity has significantly increased. African states have deployed operations of their own and they now contribute half of all UN peacekeepers. The African Union (AU) and the UN have developed a strategic partnership that plays out at the political, policy, and operational levels, and reflects the reality that neither will deploy peace operations in Africa without close consultations and some form of cooperation with the other. While the UN peacekeeping model is not found to be well-suited to enforcement, counter-terrorism or trans-national operations, the AU, sub-regional organisations and ad hoc regional coalitions have developed capabilities designed to address these challenges. These African capabilities help relieve the pressure on the UN to conduct such operations.

Highlights

  • Over the past decade and a half, Africa has developed a significant peace operations capacity

  • The main reason why Africa’s peace operations capacity has significantly increased over the past decade and a half is because the African Union (AU) and the sub-regional organisations in Africa, with significant support from international partners, have invested in establishing and developing the African Standby Force

  • We explored the major factors that are likely to influence the future direction that African-led Peace Support Operations (PSO) may take, and considered what the impact may be of these developments for the strategic partnership between the United Nations (UN) and the AU

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Summary

Introduction

Over the past decade and a half, Africa has developed a significant peace operations capacity This is reflected in the number of peacekeepers African countries contribute to African-led and United Nations (UN) peace operations. The main reason why Africa’s peace operations capacity has significantly increased over the past decade and a half is because the AU and the sub-regional organisations in Africa, with significant support from international partners, have invested in establishing and developing the African Standby Force. This project has generated political support in Africa and internationally for a significantly scaled-up African role in peace operations on the African continent. This chapter will explore the future direction that AU and Africanled peace operations may take, and consider its impact on the strategic

11 AFRICA AND UN PEACE OPERATIONS
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