Paper short abstract:

The paper will introduce the norm contester as conception of Norm Entrepreneurs in order to grasp the variety of norm entrepreneurial actions within the AU and also externally from the African Union itself in the global system.

Paper long abstract:

Research on the African Union consistently states the same results: After more than 10 years since the foundation, the willingness of the member states to integrate their policies on a regional level is low and material capacities of the continental organisation are still weak - too weak to ensure an effective policy-making on a regional level in Africa. But this focus on the inadequacy of the Regional Organisation forgets the strong normative practices and discursive power of the AU itself and its member states. Instead of analysing only the internal dimension, this paper therefore aims at looking beyond this fact by bringing together both the internal and external dimension and exploring the AU as a Norm Entrepreneur. Which norms are constitutive for the AU as a Norm Entrepreneur? How and in which way does the AU as an actor contest norms? And how can the connection between the internal and external dimension be theorized? These leading questions of the paper will be answered with the help of a new and specific conception of Norm Entrepreneurs, which will be introduced: The Norm Contester. On the basis of this reconceptualization, a typology will be elaborated which aims at grasping the variety of norm entrepreneurial actions within the AU and also externally from the African Union itself in the global system. In a second step, the normative fundament of the African Union will be explored and the normative practices in the cases of the Africa-EU negotiations and the APSA will be illustrated.