The African Union, France, and Conflict Management in Mali Preferences, Actions, and Narrations

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the Malian crisis of 2012, French president Hollande ruled out French boots on the ground and preferred an African intervention. The African Union (AU) was predestined to lead conflict management. Yet in early 2013, Hollande authorized a French operation, thereby outmaneuvering the AU. Using ‘explaining-outcome process-tracing,’ I seek to uncover the underlying causal mechanisms that explain how the AU could be sidelined. Specifically, I scrutinize the preferences and actions of the AU and French actors and the narrations that elucidated these preferences and actions because as I argue, they are crucial to understand the marginalization of the AU.