Changing Concepts and Methods of Confl ict Management in Africa: The Responsibility to Protect and the African Standby Force

Abstract

The current security debate centres on state security vs human security, and explores the imperative to intervene on humanitarian grounds, despite international norms on confl ict intervention and state sovereignty. Rhetoric was replaced with action via the Responsibility to Protect report, which revised the concept of sovereignty and framed it as the state's responsibility to protect its citizens, but also reoriented the security debate on the African continent from a principle of ‘non-interference' to one of ‘non-indifference'. Concurrently, the AU's Peace and Security Council approved the development of an independent African Standby Force to react rapidly to confl ict in Africa. This article argues that the principles of The Responsibility to Protect document, in combination with the developing African Standby Force, have the potential to effectively address the present security concerns in Africa. African Insight Vol. 36 (3&4) 2006: pp. 26-40