Search results
African regional organizations have played leading roles in constructing collective conflict management rules for the continent, but these rules or norms have not been static. Currently, the African Union (AU) deploys monitors, authorizes peace support operations, and actively engages in internal conflicts in member states. Just a few decades ago these actions would have been deeply controversial under the Organization of African Unity (OAU). What changed to allow for this transformation in the way the African regional organization approaches peace and security? Drawing extensively on primary source documents from the AU Commission archives, this book examines why the OAU chose norms that prioritized state security in 1963 leading to a policy of strict non-interference and why the AU chose very different norms leading to a disparate conflict management policy of non-indifference in the early 2000s. Even if the AU’s capacity to respond to conflict is still developing, this new policy has made the region more willing and capable of responding to violent conflict. The author argues that norm creation largely happened within the African context, and international pressure was not a determinant factor. The role of regional organizations in the international order, particularly those in the African region, has been under-theorized and under-acknowledged, and this book adds to an emerging literature that explores the role of regional organizations in the Global South in creating and promoting norms based on their own experiences and for their own purposes.
7 May 2020). 4 “Protocol of the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration,” International Legal Materials 3, no. 6 (1964): 1116–24. 5 “Provisional Agenda for the Third Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government,” AHG/13 (Organization of African Unity, November 1966). AU Commission Archives. 6 “Provisional Agenda for the Second Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government,” AHG/5 (Organization of African Unity, October 1965). AU Commission Archives. 7 “OAU Review 1963–1968: Special Issue
Commission Archives. 7 “Amendments to the Charter and the Protocol of the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration,” 2. 8 “Report of the Secretary-General on the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World and Their Implications for Africa: Proposals for an African Response,” AHG/169 (XXVI) (Organization of African Unity, July 1990), 5. AU Commission Archives. 9 “Report of the Secretary-General on the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World and Their Implications for Africa,” 5. 10 “Report of the Secretary-General on the Fundamental
Prevention, Resolution, and Management,” CM/1767 (LVIII) (Organization of African Unity, 21-26 June 1993), 3. AU Commission Archives. 2 “Introduction to the Report of the Secretary General to the 28th Ordinary Session of the OAU Assembly of Heads of State and Government,” ," CM/1706 (LVI) Part 1 (Organization of African Unity, 22 June-1 July 1992), 6–19. AU Commission Archives. 3 “Report of the Secretary-General on the Establishment of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Resolution, and Management,” 6. 4 “Report of the Secretary-General on the Establishment
Establishment of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Resolution, and Management,” CM/1767 (LVIII) (Organization of African Unity, 21-26 June 1993), 26. AU Commission Archives. 34 “Draft Agenda for the Thirty-Fifth Ordinary Sessions of the Council of Ministers,” CM/1039 (XXXV) Rev. 1 (Organization of African Unity, 18–28 June 1980). AU Commission Archives. 35 “Resolution on Adopted by the Assembly of Heads of States and Government of the Organization of African Unity, Meeting in Its Seventeenth Ordinary Session in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 1–4 July 1980,” AHG/ Res
1992), 17–19. AU Commission Archives. 2 Monde Muyangwa and Margaret A. Vogt, “An Assessment of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution, 1993–2000” (New York: International Peace Academy, 2000), 6–7. 3 “Biography of Dr. Salim Ahmed Salim” (United Nations, April 2002), www.un.org/News/dh/hlpanel/salim-salim-bio.htm (accessed 7 May 2020). 4 “Report of the Secretary-General on the Fundamental Changes Taking Place in the World and Their Implications for Africa: Proposals for an African Response,” AHG/169 (XXVI
the international system. Evidence and approach This book employs a process-tracing methodology using archival documents collected from the AU Commission Archives. Sources include speeches from African leaders at the OAU founding conference, verbatim meeting records, administrative reports and budgets, reports prepared for the Council of Ministers and Heads of State and Government, and summit agendas and outcome documents. As a general methodology, process-tracing focuses on tracing theoretical causal-mechanisms. It looks at events over time, and sequencing is
,” 1993, 13. AU Commission Archives. 10 Imobighe, The OAU (AU) and OAS in Regional Conflict Management , 60–61. 11 Sakwe, “African States,” 43. 12 Sakwe, “African States,” 45. 13 Tunde Adeniran, “Pacific Settlement Among African States: The Role of the Organization of African Unity” (Kano, Nigeria: Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, 1980), 4. 14 Adeniran, “Pacific Settlement Among African States,” 5. 15 Sakwe, “African States,” 47–48. 16 “Resolving Conflicts in Africa,” 14. 17 Sakwe, “African States,” 51. 18 Sakwe
) (Organization of African Unity, 21-26 June 1993), 3. AU Commission Archives. 29 “OAU Declaration on a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution (Cairo Declaration)” (Dipublico, 28–30 June 1993), para. 16, www.dipublico.org/100609/oau-declaration-on-a-mechanism-for-conflict-prevention-management-and-resolution-cairo-declaration/ (accessed 7 May 2020). 30 Christine Gray, International Law and the Use of Force (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 222–23. 31 “Resolution 814 (1993): Adopted by the Security Council at Its 3118th Meeting, on 26
“Organization of African Unity Charter,” 4. 70 Christopher Clapham, Africa and the International System: The Politics of State Survival (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 106–7. 71 Acharya, “Norm Subsidiarity and Regional Orders,” 93. 72 “Verbatim Record: Council of Ministers First Committee (Political): Third Session – Afternoon Session," CM (III) (1)/ SR.2 (Organization of African Unity, 14 July 1964), 12–13. AU Commission Archives. 73 Amate, Inside the OAU , 60–61. 74 Du Bois, “The Pan-African Movement.” 75 “Charter of the United