Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes to put into perspective the progresses of the ASF regarding the role of State and the nature of conflict in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Since the African Union's decision, in 2003, to create an African Standby Force (ASF) at the continental level many questions have arisen. The creation of a force based on five regional standby forces is not without difficulties coming, on the one hand, from numerous heterogeneous security challenges and, on the other hand, from a two levels model of regional integration (African Union / Regional Economic Communities (RECs)). The progress of the ASF regional components is uneven and the results modest to the point that it is possible to ask whether the operationalization of the ASF will be reached by 2015. Because of the risks of spill-over of conflicts, ASF and its regional forces are perceived as a good framework. Yet, the nature of instability already shows the limits of cooperation between States.