The African Union, Preventive Diplomacy, Mediation, and the Panel of the Wise: Review and Reflection on the Panel’s First Six Years

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe Panel of the Wise, now in its seventh year, is one of the pillars of the African Union’s Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). The short history of this important pillar of APSA reveals its gradual and progressive institutionalisation within a complex and rapidly moving environment. The institutionalization of the Panel is discussed by reference to the various stages of institutionalization and change applied to the context of organizations. These include a first phase characterized by innovation, commitment and initiation (2002–2007); a second phase focused on operationalization where creativity and discovery characterized the search for an operational niche and where a degree of institutional habitualization began to take place (2007–2010), and a third phase characterized by full institutionalization, an expanding portfolio of activities and diffusion through the creation of the Pan-African Network of the Wise (PanWise) the creation of the “Friends of the Panel” (2010–2014). Moreover, understanding the Panel of the Wise requires reference to the wider context of African Union mediation and related peacemaking activities in light of the persistent misunderstanding in academic and policy circles that the Panel of the Wise is the Union’s mediation arm. Discussions of the Panel must therefore include a considering of existing – and potential – linkages with the special envoys, special representatives and chief mediators of the African Union Commission (AUC), other APSA pillars as well as the Panel’s Secretariat role in doctrinal development of strategies, guidelines, capacity-building, learning and knowledge management on mediation.