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- Convenors:
-
Linnea Gelot
(Swedish Defence University)
Alex de Waal (Fletcher School, Tufts University)
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- Location:
- C4.02
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2013 at
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The Libya crisis gave rise to controversy in Africa especially centring around the issues of sovereignty and ownership. This panel will address some issues that divide African countries in regard to military interevention, sovereignty and human security ideals. What are some of the current patterns in African power dynamics?
Long Abstract:
Against the backdrop of the crisis in Libya there is a need to critically reinterpret the role of the African Union and its credibility and legitimacy in ensuring peace and security. The political crisis in Libya gave rise to intense discussion and controversy in Africa especially centring around the issues of sovereignty and ownership. This panel will address some issues that continue to divide African countries now that the demise of Kadhafi has left a 'security vacuum' in African power dynamics: What is the role and relevance of the 'African Solution to African problems' mantra? When is external intervention in Africa legitimate? Why did some African states support the NATO intervention in Libya and others were strongly against it? What is the significance of the AU's emerging partnerships with the Arab League and BRICS? Thus, panelists use Libya as an illustration of changing power dynamics in and around the African Union. This is important because so far little has been written about the African perspectives on the Libya crisis. These perspectives are interesting in their own right and they also tell us something about the type of peace and security actor that the African Union is becoming.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
This presentation intends to focus on the role Libya played in Chad, Central African Republic, and other countries in Sahel, focusing on the continuities and transformations in the Libyan role
Paper long abstract:
While, at first glance, Qaddafi Libya's role in Africa has been most often described as a destabilising one, the reality is more nuanced, complex, and changing. This presentation intends to focus on the role Libya played in Chad, Central African Republic, and other countries in Sahel. It illustrates some permanencies in different contexts such as the will to be able to talk to all parties at the same time, a strong opposition, or distrust in front of any actor external to the continent and mixed attitudes towards would-be African regional powers.
Stability is more than often the efficient management of a certain kind of disorder. Qaddafi being overthrown, we enter in a period when all States and non-States actors in Libya's peripheries need to redefine what (in) stability means while Libya has to settle its own internal order. Crises in Fezzan/Chad, Mali, and CAR are to a certain extent the illustration of a new regional order yet to define.
Paper short abstract:
In order to gain new insight into the realisation of a global-regional partnership in implementing the R2P principle, the paper situates the actions of the UN and the AU in Libya within the R2P three-pillar strategy, assesses the consistency of their approaches and the extent of their cooperation.
Paper long abstract:
Over 10 years, the African Union has succeeded in building an impressive record of institutional and operational achievements and has grown to become a privileged partner of the United Nations. As young as the AU is the ground-breaking responsibility to protect principle. Following its formal adoption by the international community in 2005, the UN has importantly emphasised the need for an effective global-regional partnership in implementing the R2P. At the regional level, the African Union stands out from other regional organisations for the particularly interventionist stance adopted on the terms of implementation of the principle.
Comprehended as an instance of R2P, the 2011 Libyan crisis provides an outstanding opportunity to gain insight into the realisation of this global-regional partnership. To this end, the paper situates the actions of the United Nations and the African Union within the R2P three-pillar strategy and assesses the consistency of their respective approach as well as the extent of their cooperation. In light of the adverse consequences ensuing from the manifest lack of cooperation between the UN and the AU in Libya, avenues are considered to strengthen their existing cooperation.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will examine the response of South Africa to UNSC resolution 1973 drawing upon interviews with senior ANC officials and ANC activists. It will analyse the contradictory nature of South Africa’s response and situate this within broader debates about Pretoria’s foreign policy trajectory.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will examine the response of South Africa to the intervention in Libya drawing upon interviews with activists at the ANC's policy conference in June 2012, in depth interviews with senior ANC officials, and detailed policy analysis. Pretoria has identified the rise of the BRICS as a major development in the sphere of international relations; one that is fundamentally shifting the balance of global power and influence. While Constructivists have paid a great deal of attention to the role that the ANC's identity as a liberation movement has in shaping the 'anti-imperial' component of its foreign policy, this paper will argue that such populist rhetoric is primarily produced for domestic, ANC consumption, rather than being the primary driver of policy making. This paper will argue that South Africa's contradictory response to the UN Security Council Resolution 1973 reflects its long-term approach towards peace building and security in Africa and its attempts to reconcile Pretoria's growing power and influence on the world stage with the ANC's identity as an African liberation movement.