Paper long abstract:

Author: Paul-Henri Bischoff (Rhodes)

Despite a multitude of international institutions on the African continent, worldwide Africa’s multilateralism has generally received little attention. Yet, with the emergence of the African Union and its institutions, questions arise about its character. Will rhetoric and state symbolism take the place of substance or will the space opened up for democracy and civil society participation allow for greater democratically informed sustainability? With this in mind, the article addresses the issue of to what extent the character of African multilateralism continues to display features of disconnectedness as opposed to those of transformation.

It is argued that overall, African multilateralism can be typified as containing these four elements: That of being - <em>extractive</em> – using limited trade arrangements sustain a flow of tariff revenue to the state or are used by regional institutions as a means to obtain greater amounts of foreign aid or status; <em>symbolic</em> – employing institutions for the purposes of political symbolism, rhetoric and declaration; <em>responsive</em> – anticipating global trends of regional economic protectionism and (re)-creating sub-regional bodies to preempt this drift towards it in the early 1990s or <em>receptive</em> – embracing foreign donor regimes. However, African multilateralism has not, as yet, demonstrated its <em>transformative side</em>, able to make multilateralism more meaningful so that regionalism overcomes its own statism, have regional institutions address issues of uneven development, be open to civil society concerns and responsive to regional parliamentary oversight. Such change could have Africa credibly participate to leverage concessions from the international community. In the interim, amidst state-centred interpretations of sovereignty there remains the persistence of imposed conditionality regimes. As such, the rhetorical or only partial empowerment of civil society cannot fully shore up Africa’s new multilateralism in ways that would make it more connected with African society or to give Africa as a whole, a greater presence within global multilateralism.