Imagining, Implementing, and Integrating the African Peace and Security Architecture: The African Union’s Challenges

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn 2002 the African Union embarked on an ambitious plan to develop and operationalize a comprehensive African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Since then, it has become clear that this is truly a journey in unchartered waters, with little in the sense of precedent and off-the-shelf blueprints in Africa or elsewhere. Implementation of APSA continues to take place in a complex institutional environment, driven and at the same time contested by African Union member states, regional organizations, and the African Union Commission with various and changing interests. At the same time, the African continent continues to be plagued by numerous violent conflicts. This article introduces the content of this issue of African Security, which addresses the implementation of APSA from four perspectives: First it takes stock of what has been achieved so far, focusing on eight issue areas where the Union continues to face implementation challenges and which may explain why the APSA is not yet fully operational. Second, it focuses on the use of mediation roadmaps in resolving African conflicts, with a reflection on the strengths and weaknesses of African conflict resolution efforts, here recontextualized in line with the changing landscape of conflicts in Africa. Third, it extends the analysis to consider mediation in the context of other forms of peacemaking and preventive diplomacy by the Union, by focusing on the role of the Panel of the Wise which is often misunderstood as the Union’s mediation arm. Finally, this issue introduces maritime security as an emerging—arguably urgent—policy field, discussing the reasons for the lack of policy coordination and harmonization both within the African Union Commission and between the Commission and the Regional Economic Communities.