From non-intervention to non-indifference: The origins and development of the African Union's security culture

African Affairs

Volumn 106, Issue 423, 2007, Pages 253-279

  Williams, Paul D ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK   (United Kingdom)

^b GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURE; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; SECURITY; UNITED NATIONS;

AFRICA;

EID: 34447502309     PISSN: 00019909     EISSN: 14682621     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/afraf/adm001     Document Type: Article

References (112)

1. James M. Goldgeier and Michael McFaul, 'A tale of two worlds: core and periphery in the post-Cold War era', International Organization 46, 2 (1992), pp. 467-91 (quote from p. 478).
2. Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver, Regions and Powers: The structure of international security, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003).
3. Alexander Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999).
4. Cooper was a former foreign policy adviser for UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and is currently Director General for Politico-Military Affairs at the EU Council. See his The Breaking of Nations: Order and chaos in the twenty-first century (Atlantic Books, London, 2003).
5. Christopher Clapham, 'Degrees of statehood', Review of International Studies, 24, 2 (1998), p. 153.
6. For a relevant overview and discussion, see Patrick Chabal and Jean-Pascal Daloz, Africa Works: Disorder as a political instrument (James Currey, Oxford, 1999).
7. On which see Peter Vale, '"New ways to remember...": Community in Southern Africa', International Relations, 18, 1 (2004), pp. 73-89.
8. See Buzan and Wæver, Regions and Powers, p. 49.
9. Prominent examples of the literature on norms in international relations include Audie Klotz, Norms in International Relations: The struggle against apartheid (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1995);
10. Peter J. Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security (Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1996);
11. Gregory A. Raymond, 'Problems and prospects in the study of international norms', Mershon International Studies Review, 41, 2 (1997), pp. 205-46;
12. Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, 'International norm dynamics and political change', International Organization, 52, 4 (1998), pp. 887-917;
13. Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy networks in international politics (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1998);
14. Thomas Risse et al. (eds), The Power of Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999);
15. Nicholas J. Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian intervention in international society (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000);
16. and Martha Finnemore, The Purpose of Intervention: Changing beliefs about the use of force (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 2001).
17. Amitav Acharya, 'How ideas spread: whose norms matter? Norm localization and institutional change in Asian regionalism', International Organization, 58, 2 (2004), pp. 241 and 239.
18. See, for example, Saïd Djinnit, 'Building an effective African Union', presentation, Addis Ababa, 7 March 2002, and Ben Kioko, 'The right of intervention under the African Union's constitutive act', International Review of the Red Cross, 85, 852 (2003), p. 819.
19. This definition draws on the work of Alastair Iain Johnston, Cultural Realism: Strategic culture and grand strategy in chinese history (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1995).
20. For an alternative but similar definition of security culture, see Keith Krause, 'Cross-cultural dimensions of multilateral non-proliferation and arms control dialogues: an overview' in Keith Krause (ed.), Culture and Security (Frank Cass, London, 1999), p. 14.
21. By socialization, I mean the 'induction of new members... into the ways of behavior that are preferred in a society.' Barnes, Carter and Skidmore cited in Thomas Risse, Stephen C. Ropp and Kathryn Sikkink, 'The socialization of international human rights norms into domestic practices' in Risse et al. (eds), The Power of Human Rights, p. 11.
22. For a flavour of the central concerns of many African NGOs, see Alex de Waal (ed.), Demilitarizing the Mind: African agendas for peace and security (Africa World Press, Trenton, NJ, 2002).
23. Robert H. Jackson, Quasi-States: Sovereignty, international relations and the third world (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991).
24. Andrew Hurrell, 'Regionalism in theoretical perspective' in Louise Fawcett and Andrew Hurrell (eds), Regionalism in World Politics (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995), p. 65.
25. Important textual evidence would include communiqués from Pan-African congresses, the Charters of the OAU (1963) and AU (2002), the Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (2002), the Solemn Declaration on a Common African Defense and Security Policy (2004), the so-called Ezulwini Consensus document on UN reform (2005), as well as declarations from the principal institutions of the OAU and AU, including, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the Council of Ministers, the Commission, and the Peace and Security Council.
26. Peter J. Katzenstein, Alexander Wendt and Ronald Jepperson, 'Norms, identity, and culture in national security' in Katzenstein (ed.), The Culture of National Security, p. 54.
27. Risse et al., 'The socialization of international human rights norms', p. 7.
28. See Christian Reus-Smit, American Power and World Order (Polity, Cambridge, 2004).
29. Risse et al., 'The socialization of international human rights norms', pp. 5-6 and 11.
30. See Basil Davidson, The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the curse of the nation state (James Currey, Oxford, 1992).
31. Robert H. Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, 'Why Africa's weak states persist: the empirical and the juridical in statehood', World Politics, 35, 1 (1982), p. 19.
32. Emanuel Adler, 'Imagined (security) communities: cognitive regions in international relations', Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 26, 2 (1997), pp. 249-77.
33. Jackson and Rosberg, 'Why Africa's weak states persist', p. 17.
34. Uti possidetis is the legal doctrine that colonial administrative boundaries would become international boundaries when the political unit in question achieved independence.
35. According to Crawford, ethical arguments 'are about what it is right to do in particular situations; and identity arguments are about how different understandings or actions in the world are implied on the basis of identity.... Ethical arguments concern how to act in a particular situation so as to be doing good, assuming that the good has been defined through cultural consensus or meta-argument.... Identity arguments posit that people of a certain kind act or don't act in certain ways and the audience of the argument either positively or negatively identifies with the people in question.' Neta C. Crawford, Argument and Change in World Politics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002), pp. 14 and 24.
36. See Godfrey L. Binaisa, 'Organization of African Unity and decolonization: present and future trends', Annals: American Academy of Political and Social Science, 432, (1977), p. 52.
37. Rupert Emerson, 'Pan-Africanism', International Organization, 16, 2 (1962), p. 280.
38. Emerson, 'Pan-Africanism', p. 276.
39. Emerson, 'Pan-Africanism', p. 288.
40. Colin Legum, 'The Organisation of African Unity - success or failure?', International Affairs, 51, 2 (1975), p. 208.
41. Haile I. Selassie, 'Towards African Unity', Journal of Modern African Studies, 1, 3 (1963), p. 285.
42. Legum, 'The Organisation of African Unity', p. 209ff.
43. The Brazzaville group comprised Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Côte d'lvoire, Benin, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Mauritania, Niger, the Central African Republic, Senegal and Chad. The Monrovia Group comprised the Brazzaville Group as well as Ethiopia, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Togo, Tunisia and Congo (Kinshasa). The Casablanca group was made up of Algeria, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Libya, Mali and Morocco.
44. Paul Nugent, Africa Since Independence (Palgrave-Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2003), pp. 101-2.
45. Onyeonoro S. Kamanu, 'Secession and the right of self-determination: an OAU dilemma', Journal of Modern African Studies, 12, 3 (1974), pp. 362-3.
46. They were dubbed the organization's 'articles of faith' by Nigeria's Attorney General at the time. See T.O. Elias, 'The Charter of the Organization of African Unity', American Journal of International Law, 59, 2 (1965), p. 248.
47. Selassie, 'Towards African unity', p. 287.
48. David B. Meyers, 'Intraregional conflict management by the Organization of African Unity', International Organization, 28, 3 (1974), p. 372. This logic apparently did not apply for the UN's other agencies.
49. Legum, 'The Organisation of African Unity', p. 214.
50. Elias, 'The Charter', p. 248.
51. Julius K. Nyerere, 'A United States of Africa', Journal of Modern African Studies, 1, 1 (1963), p. 5.
52. Cited in Emerson, 'Pan-Africanism', p. 278.
53. Kamanu, 'Secession', p. 367.
54. Kamanu, 'Secession', p. 368.
55. For a relevant discussion, see Richard Hodder-Williams, 'African summitry' in David H. Dunn (ed.), Diplomacy at the Highest Level (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1996), pp. 132-46.
56. See Meyers, 'Intraregional conflict management'.
57. Meyers, 'Intraregional conflict management', p. 364.
58. Kamanu, 'Secession', p. 355.
59. See Rosalyn Higgins, Problems and Process: International law and how we use it (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994), Chapter 7.
60. As Kamanu suggested, legitimate justification for self-determination 'could not merely be that [a group of] people are different ethnically or culturally from the rest of the parent political community... but rather that, on the basis of hard empirical evidence, the members of the seceding group could no longer live in peace and security, or fulfil their legitimate individual aspirations, within the larger political community.' Kamanu, 'Secession', p. 361.
61. Arnold Hughes, 'Decolonizing Africa: colonial boundaries and the crisis of the (non) nation state', Diplomacy and Statecraft, 15, 4 (2004), p. 864.
62. Kamanu, 'Secession', p. 370.
63. For details of some of the main cases see Hughes, 'Decolonizing Africa', pp. 837-8
64. and Pierre Englebert and Rebecca Hummel, 'Let's stick together: understanding Africa's secessionist deficit', African Affairs, 104, 416 (2005), p. 401.
65. See Jeffrey Herbst, 'Responding to state failure in Africa', International Security, 21, 3 (1996-97), p. 137. Although as Englebert and Hummel ('Let's stick together', p. 421) note, 1990-1997 did see a rise in the number of separatist claims in Africa.
66. Kamanu, 'Secession', p. 373.
67. Promoting human rights involves steps to raise awareness about them. Protecting human rights involves 'acting directly on behalf of individuals whose rights have been abridged.' Claude Welch Jr., 'The Organisation of African Unity and the promotion of human rights', Journal of Modern African Studies, 29, 4 (1991), p. 536.
68. Claude Welch Jr., 'The OAU and human rights: toward a new definition', Journal of Modern African Studies, 19, 3 (1981), pp. 401 and 403.
69. Welch, 'The Organisation of African Unity and the promotion of human rights', p. 537.
70. Welch, 'The OAU and human rights', p. 405.
71. Welch, 'The Organisation of African Unity and the promotion of human rights', p. 538.
72. For the evidence see Rachel Murray, Human Rights in Africa (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004).
73. Bruce Baker, 'Twilight of impunity for Africa's presidential criminals', Third World Quarterly, 25, 8 (2004), pp. 1497-8.
74. Baker, 'Twilight', p. 1491.
75. Assembly of the AU, 7th Ordinary Session, 1-2 July 2006, Banjul, The Gambia, Assembly/AU/Dec.127(VII).
76. On the wider international developments in this area see Marc Weller, 'On the hazards of foreign travel for dictators and other international criminals', International Affairs, 75, 3 (1999), pp. 599-617.
77. Berhanykun Andemicael cited in Alan Henrikson, 'The growth of regional organizations and the role of the United Nations' in Fawcett and Hurrell (eds), Regionalism in World Politics, p. 137.
78. See Murray, Human Rights in Africa, p. 22.
79. See Rita Abrahamsen, Disciplining Democracy: Development discourse and good governance in Africa (London, Zed, 2000)
80. and Miles Kahler (ed.), Liberalization and Foreign Policy (Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1997).
81. Declaration on the Framework for an OAU Response to Unconstitutional Changes in Government AHG/Decl.5 (XXXVI), 10-12 July 2000. This drew upon the earlier decision on unconstitutional changes of government taken by the Heads of State and Government of the OAU at the Algiers Summit, 12-14 July 1999.
82. Patrick J. McGowan, 'African military coups d'etats, 1956-2001', Journal of Modern African Studies, 41, 3 (2003), pp. 339-70. McGowan classifies 'displacements of government personnel or constitutional relationships lasting at least one week' as 'successful coups d'état'.
83. Welch, 'The OAU and human rights', p. 404.
84. The likely catalyst for the inclusion of this clause was the assassination of President Sylvanus Olympio of Togo in an army coup d'état in January 1963. Elias, 'The Charter', p. 249.
85. McGowan, 'African military coups d'états', p. 348.
86. Decisions Adopted by the 66th Ordinary Session of the OAU Council of Ministers, CM/Dec.330-363 (LXVI), Dec.356 (1997).
87. See resolution 841 (1993) and the Council's subsequent resolutions on the situation in Haiti.
88. See Patrick J. McGowan, 'African Military Intervention Events, 1 January, 1955 to 31 December, 2004', (Unpublished paper 2005, in author's possession).
89. AU Peace and Security Council, 24th Meeting, Addis Ababa, PSC/PR/Comm. (XXIV), 7 February 2005, p. 2.
90. AU Peace and Security Council, 25th Meeting, Addis Ababa, PSC/PR/Comm. (XXV), 25 February 2005.
91. AU Peace and Security Council, 30th Meeting, Addis Ababa, PSC/PR/Comm. (XXX), 27 May 2005.
92. Denis M. Tull and Andreas Mehler, 'The hidden costs of power-sharing: reproducing insurgent violence in Africa', African Affairs, 104, 416 (2005), pp. 393-4.
93. Paul Simon Handy, 'The dynastic succession in Togo', African Security Review, 14, 3 (2005), pp. 47-51.
94. AU Peace and Security Council, 36th Meeting, Addis Ababa, PSC/PR/Stat. (XXXVI)-(ii), 4 August 2005.
95. 'AU Seeks Mauritania junta talks', BBC News Online, 9 August 2005: http://news.bbc. co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4135350.stm
96. I owe this observation to an anonymous reviewer.
97. Francis M. Deng, 'Frontiers of sovereignty', Leiden Journal of International Law, 8, 2 (1995), pp. 249-86
98. and ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect (ICISS, Ottawa, 2001).
99. As Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore have shown, international organizations may develop a degree of autonomy from the states that created them. Any autonomous power derives from the legitimacy of the rational-legal authority they embody, their control over technical expertise and information, and overseeing administrative processes and procedures. See their 'The politics, power and pathologies of international organizations', International Organization, 53, 4 (1999), pp. 699-732.
100. UN doc. S/PV.5319, 9 December 2005, p. 11.
101. UN doc. S/PV.5319 (Resumption 1), 9 December 2005, pp. 18-9.
102. Speech, Addis Ababa, 28 June 2004 cited in IRIN News.
103. See, for example, the remarks by South Africa's representative, UN doc. S/PV.5319, 9 December 2005, p. 27.
104. See the remarks of the representatives from Algeria and Egypt in UN doc. S/PV.5319 (Resumption 1), 9 December 2005, pp. 3 and 7.
105. Author's discussion with UN official, Washington DC, 12 September 2006.
106. For some of the evidence, see the International Commission of Inquiry, Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General, Geneva, 25 January 2005; available at www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2005/ici-sud-25feb.pdf
107. and Samuel Totten and Eric Markusen, 'Research Note: The US Government Darfur genocide investigation', Journal of Genocide Research, 7 2 (2005), pp. 279-90.
108. Assembly of the AU, 3rd Ordinary Session, 6-8 July 2004, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Assembly/AU/Dec.54 (III), para. 2.
109. Assembly of the AU, 4th Ordinary Session, 30-31 January 2005, Abuja, Nigeria, Assembly/AU/Dec.68 (IV).
110. I owe this point to an anonymous reviewer.
111. See Paul D. Williams and Alex J. Bellamy, 'The responsibility to protect and the crisis in Darfur', Security Dialogue, 36, 1 (2005), pp. 27-47;
112. and Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, 'The United Nations Security Council and the Question of Humanitarian Intervention in Darfur', Journal of Military Ethics, 5, 2 (2006), pp. 144-60.