Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how African Union and ECOWAS meeting and document practices in the area of peace and security can be mapped across time and space. It emphasizes agency of these organizations in intervention processes by highlighting productive challenges arising from data gathering.

Paper long abstract:

A central part of African Union (AU) and ECOWAS intervention politics are regular meetings to discuss, comment, and elaborate on conflict situations oftentimes followed by press statements and (final) communiqués. A constantly growing body of qualitative and quantitative research takes interest in conflict management of international and regional organizations (IOs/ROs) before/during/after conflict intervention processes. Here, most emphasis has been placed on the United Nations and military operations (peace support operations/peacekeeping). Few projects, however, take a closer look at African ROs and specifically their meeting and document practices in intervention processes and reconstruct these from a large-scale perspective. This gap is addressed in the present paper by focusing on the central institutional bodies deciding over matters of peace and security of the AU and ECOWAS. I investigate how their document and meeting practices can be mapped/reconstructed across time and space and introduce initial data that covers the period 2000-2020. I contribute to the panel discussion by providing empirical data demonstrating the inter-relatedness and differences between AU and ECOWAS document and meeting practices, which I conceptualize as non-military conflict intervention practices. Based on the mapping, I emphasize agency of African ROs in conflict intervention processes. I do so particularly by highlighting the productive challenges in knowledge production through gathering data. The contribution forms part of the research network “African Non-military Conflict Intervention Practices” (ANCIP), which will output further data on non-military intervention practices.

Paper short abstract:

Analyzing the agency of ECOWAS, this paper paper investigates how different actors at African regional organizations have sought to position themselves in trans-regional and global dynamics, such as contested economic and trade relations as well as inter-connected security challenges.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, we use the concept ‘globalization project’ to investigate how different actors have sought to position the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in trans-regional and global dynamics, such as contested economic and trade relations as well as inter-connected security challenges. Considering ECOWAS as a complex collective actor, the paper identifies, describes and analyzes how ECOWAS actors have perceived the organization’s position in trans-regional and global dynamics and how they have actively tried to influence it. Drawing on official documents and interviews with ECOWAS staff, the paper focuses on the work of ECOWAS liaison offices and regional coordination efforts in Addis Ababa, Brussels and New York, as examples of active efforts to shape trans-regional and global dynamics according to West African regional interests. Thereby, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the agency of African regional organizations in global politics and contemporary globalization processes.

Paper short abstract:

There is a paradox of between the African Union's liberal gender agenda and its member states lack of engagement with it. Through theories on aspirational politics and political brokers the paper examines the specific actors that have driven the AU gender agenda, and how they have done so.

Paper long abstract:

The African Union (AU) has developed an elaborate gender governance architecture, including gender machineries and women’s desks, policy frameworks, path-breaking women’s rights law and ongoing campaigns on women’s rights related issues. At the same time, the member states engagement with this architecture is at best lukewarm, with lack of domestication, compliance and accountability. This article addresses this paradox and develops the theoretical thinking around aspirational politics (Finnemore and Jurkovich 2020) and political brokers (Goddard 2009) to explain how this pan-African gender governance came into existence. The article demonstrates that the AU femocrats became political brokers between AU member states, donors, UN agencies and CSOs. By mobilizing actors, and facilitating common ground and agreement, their institutionalized broker position allowed for various political entrepreneurs to emerge and thrive. The case of the AU shows that aspirational politics are not necessarily a ‘phase’ leading to norms governance, as suggested by existing scholarship, but part and parcel to normative negotiation and engagement. This article examines how ‘aspirations’ can help to make sense of lack of normative commitment to political agreements, illuminate the political work of ‘secondary characters’ rather than high-level or grassroots heroes, and complicate the artificial dichotomy of successes and failures in international organizations.

Paper short abstract:

The paper assesses African agency in responding to West Africa’s maritime insecurity through the coordination of interconnected multilevel initiatives and towards the creation of an independent (yet interdependent on non-African actors) peace and security architecture in the Gulf of Guinea region.

Paper long abstract:

Over the years, concerns over the maritime security in West Africa have increased, making of the Gulf of Guinea one of the most insecure maritime spot, regionally and globally. Indeed, because of globalization dynamics, local security threats have assumed a transnational aspect, requiring multilateral joint interventions and multilevel mechanisms of approaching them, in order to maintain stability and security. Although the African continent has witnessed a long history of external actors' presence and engagement over its own security and peace, as well as development, the extent of the growing African agency in overcoming such dependence and submission needs to be explored. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach that combines International Relations and Security Studies with African Studies, this paper aims to assess autonomous African responses to growing security threats in West Africa through the coordination of regional and international initiatives towards the creation of its peace and security architecture in the Gulf of Guinea. Furthermore, through the analytical lenses of the security-development nexus and securitization dynamics imposed by external powers, this paper analyses the changing role and perceptions of Africa in the new millennium, both within the continent itself and internationally. It also addresses recent African efforts towards a security regionalization that can be conducive to further mechanisms of regional and global security.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores African Union (AU) self-empowerment practices in face of a disproportional COVID-19 response, which reinforced global power relations. It will analyze how the AU disowned cloudy discourses on trust that intensified assumed oppositions, namely between the North and the South.

Paper long abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted fractures in global health that have disproportionally and historically burdened the poorest. This was particularly evident in the governance structures and policies developed at the global level to deal with vaccines development and distribution. Narratives supporting such policies and structures, aimed at fostering cooperation more broadly, ended up reiterating global agendas benefitting wealthier, vaccine-producing nations.

Instead of accepting protracted vaccine distribution schemes, some countries, including African Union (AU) Member States, gave up on negotiations, developing alternative regional governance mechanisms. This self-empowering movement can be seen as a form of resistance to the disenchanted views of global power relations brought up by various pandemic panoramas—e.g. border closures and movement restrictions, (un)availability of testing supplies, vaccines allocation and distribution.

This paper seeks to show how, in face of imminent death, trust became instrumental for some (references to it became noticeable for engaging in binaries such as North and South, government and people, public and private) and futile for others. For countries in the South and AU countries in particular, the discourse on trust proved murky and anachronic, hindering the institutionalization of a global governance mechanism for the COVID-19 response.

This paper explores how AU initiatives such as AVAT, PACT, and the Trusted Travel Scheme hint at a significant empowerment level. Through disavowing a binary view of the world, these initiatives also flag a more prominent normative role by the African Union, not necessarily in tandem with international governance mechanisms.

Paper short abstract:

How are constituent attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa reflected in their governments’ foreign policies? Do some constituent views on foreign policy feature more strongly than others in their country’s actual policies and why? We present evidence on free movement and trade in the African Union.

Paper long abstract:

Foreign policy analysis across the social sciences on Africa neglects the role constituent demands play in determining governmental foreign policies. Addressing this important gap, we ask two questions: To what extent are constituent attitudes in Sub-Saharan Africa reflected in their governments’ foreign policies? Do some constituent views on foreign policy feature more strongly than others in their country’s actual policies and why? We compare governmental foreign policy positions with public attitudes on issues of free movement and trade across countries in Africa from the Afrobarometer (Round 8) to see how popular views on foreign policy issues are reflected in foreign policy. This is particularly timely, as the African Union's (AU) has recently adopted the ``Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area'' (AfCFTA) signed in March 2018 and the ``Protocol to the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community Relating to Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment'' (AfFM) signed in January 2018. First, we describe which African governments represent the preferences of their constituents more closely, and which ones do not. We find that there is great variance across the continent in this regard. Second, we explore four explanations that may lead to greater match of foreign policy and public opinion on free movement and trade: (1) democratic versus autocratic governments; (2) government tax dependence versus non-tax government income; (3) whether a constituency group is affected by free movement and trade; (4) whether constituency group can put more pressure on the government to change policy.

Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the international actorness of the African Union (AU), its capacity to perform as a single entity in the international system, its ability to represent and implement a distinct foreign policy, and its capability to cooperate with external actors.

Paper long abstract:

Many studies of regional actorness have attempted to compare the structures of regional actors with those of other state or non-state actors, international regimes, or international organizations. Equating the different institutional contexts of states and regional organizations (ROs) or adopting an implicit or explicit orientation towards the ideal of the nation-state cannot, however, capture the complex structure and contextual challenges of ROs in the Global South. To analyze regional actorness and its functional range, this study applies an analytical framework that combines multidimensional factors into a systematic conceptualization and not only includes proof of the AU’s capacity to act autonomously on the global stage but also assesses the intensity of such interactions. International recognition, coherence, authority, and autonomy are the main criteria that define the potential and performance of the AU as a legitimate institutional body in extra-regional dialogues. These dimensions of regional actorness are related; autonomy is not a sufficient criterion for international actorness if there is no international recognition; and, in the same way, a legal framework for the implementation of certain regional positions needs some internal coherence to agree with these common positions. For a holistic understanding of the AU’s actorness, legal structures that grant operational space for the representation of member states, the distinctive and institutional independent character of the organization’s foreign policy, the congruence between objectives and output coherence, and the international integration of the AU are being analyzed.

Paper short abstract:

The presentation discusses the position and agency of the AU in the war in Ukraine. It reveals the motivations of the AU and its member states to take a restrained position in the conflict and evaluates geopolitical, security, and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

The current war in Ukraine has regional and wider global consequences, affecting the African continent as well. African Union (AU), as a leading regional organization on the continent, was expected by the USA and European Union (EU) to take a clear stance in support of Ukraine. However, to the surprise of the West, the AU's response to the war in Ukraine has been lukewarm. It has been influenced primarily by the need to balance the approach of both the AU and its member states towards Russia and the West and the effort to maintain a non-aligned position in the conflict in Europe.

The proposed contribution focuses on the position and agency of the AU in the current war in Ukraine. It will reveal the motivations of the AU as a geopolitical actor and crucial member states’ postures on both sides of the conflict, considering historical, geopolitical, and economic factors. Besides that, it will present and evaluate also the geopolitical, security, and economic consequences of the war in Ukraine in Africa. Last, but not least, the presentation will discuss the possible effect of the restrained position of the AU as a regional organization and its crucial member states in supporting Ukraine on relations with the EU in particular.

The presentation is based on the content and discourse analysis of selected media, statements of African leaders and representatives of the AU, and official AU documents.