African Peace: Regional Norms From the Organization of African Unity to the African Union by Kathryn Nash

Author:Kathryn Nash [Nash, Kathryn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526152817
Google: UAuazQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 56549146
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2021-01-26T00:00:00+00:00

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Changing international and regional dynamics

The 1990s marked a time of tremendous turbulence and transition for Africa and the global community. The Cold War came to an abrupt and unexpected end, and African leaders knew that this would have ramifications for the continent. There were also events that unfolded in Africa, including the conflict in Somalia, the Rwandan Genocide, and the end of the last vestiges of white-minority regimes that contributed to the upheaval. All of these events pushed the OAU to re-evaluate its goals and approaches. While the immediate post-Cold War period is an important part of the story when examining the change from the OAU to the AU, it should not be seen as the whole story but rather the final chapter.

Africa in the early 1990s

The history of OAU conflict management and impetus for reform

Emerging into the new world order, African leaders knew the persistent challenges that Africa had faced for decades. The OAU had made significant progress in eradicating colonialism, but it still remained ineffectual when addressing conflicts in Africa, which hindered many other aspects of its work. OAU mediation tended to be much more effective when done between member states as the prevailing regional norms discouraged interference in internal conflicts and prioritized state security and territorial integrity. Internal OAU documents acknowledge the weaknesses of the organization in preventing and managing conflicts, particularly intra-state conflicts.1 The OAU’s capacity to effectively manage and resolve conflicts was hampered by the limitations of its mandate, stunted conflict management institutions, and lack of capacity and funding. The OAU Charter mandated non-interference and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, and this severely curtailed any legitimacy the OAU had to intercede in internal conflicts regardless of their regional implications. The Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration, the one OAU institution that was established to deal with conflict, was never fully funded or utilized. Finally, the OAU had difficulty funding their work because many member states did not pay their dues.2

Efforts to address the weaknesses of Africa’s capacity to manage conflict began well before the end of the Cold War, and the work done in the 1990s is simply a continuation. There were multiple attempts to reform the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration, but these efforts uniformly failed to attract enough support. In the 1980s, the OAU shifted its focus away from reforming the defunct Commission to alternative approaches to conflict management. This shift is illustrated in the OAU-supported peacekeeping missions in Chad and an effort to establish a Political Security Council within the OAU to oversee a regional response to conflicts. These efforts had limited success, but a new Secretary General with a renewed zeal for effective conflict management came to the helm of the organization at the end of the decade. In 1989, Salim Ahmed Salim became Secretary General of the OAU. Salim significantly expanded the scope of the Secretary General’s role, and pushed member states to finally reform the OAU’s approach to conflict management to address the already apparent weaknesses. Although

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