Paper short abstract:

This paper analyses the role of the African Union (AU) Liaison Office in the international efforts to reestablish constitutional order after the 2009 political crisis in Madagascar and reconstructs how and to what extent it has contributed to peacemaking and conflict prevention in Madagascar.

Paper long abstract:

Field offices are an increasingly important reality in the architecture of African peacemaking. Yet despite their importance in practice, little attention has to far been paid to their work in academic debates on peacebuilding and mediation. This paper analyses the role of the African Union (AU) Liaison Office in the international efforts to reestablish constitutional order after the 2009 political crisis. The paper scrutinizes the mandate, set-up and institutional capacities of the Liaison Office and reconstructs how and to what extent it has contributed to peacemaking and conflict prevention in Madagascar. It thereby particularly highlights the often ad hoc way the Liaison Office reacted to unprecedented and rapidly changing events on the ground and stresses the important role individual staff play in translating the Liaison Office’s mandate into practice.