African Affairs Advance Access originally published online on September 1, 2005
African Affairs 2005 104(417):635-656; doi:10.1093/afraf/adi066
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The Common African Defence and Security Policy
Dr. Omar A. Touray (gambia{at}ethionet.et) is Ambassador of The Gambia to the African Union.
The literature on Africa’s collective security arrangements focuses on the African Union’s Peace and Security Council and the Central Organ of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) before it. This article shows that the Peace and Security Council is only an implementation mechanism of a broader policy framework, the Common African Defence and Security Policy (CADSP), that was adopted recently in Sirte, Libya. The article argues that the adoption of such a broader collective security policy framework was made possible by changes within the international system. These changes brought about a shift from realism to idealism in various regions of the world. In Africa, the idealistic undercurrent found expression in renewed interest in African institutions and African solutions to African problems. The article also demonstrates that the CADSP will confront many challenges ranging from general theoretical and normative questions that bedevil collective security arrangements elsewhere to specific issues such as funding and other practical implementation matters.
He is the author of The Gambia and the World and several papers on international economic relations. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, University of Geneva.
1 It has been estimated that some 26 armed conflicts erupted in Africa between 1963 and 1998, affecting 474 million people or 61% of the continent’s population. At subregional level, 79% of the population were affected in East Africa, 73% in Central Africa, 46% in West Africa, 51% in North Africa, and 29% in southern Africa. See Jeffrey Herbst, ‘Economic incentives, natural resources and conflicts in Africa’, Journal of African Economies 9, 3 (2000), pp. 270–88, 292 and 294; and the World Bank, Can Africa Claim the 21 Century? (The World Bank, Washington, DC, 2001), p. 59.
2 See for example, Vanessa Kent and Mark Malan, ‘The African standby force: progress and prospects,’ African Security Review 12, 3 (2003), pp. 29–46; J. Cilliers and K. Sturman, ‘The right intervention: enforcement challenges for the African Union’, African Security Review 1, 3 (2002), pp. 29–39; A. Sesay, ‘Regional and subregional conflict management efforts’, in S. Akinrinade and A. Sesay (eds), Africa in the Post-Cold War International System (Pinter, London, 1998), pp. 29–39; Gunnar Sorbo and Peter Vale (eds), Out of Conflict: From war to peace in Africa (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, Sweden, 1997); Eric Berman and Katie Sams, Peace Keeping in Africa: Capabilities and culpabilities (ISS and UNIDIR, Pretoria, South Africa, 2000); Margaret Aderinsola Vogt, ‘Cooperation between the UN and the OAU in the management of African conflicts’, in Mark Malan (ed.), Whither Peacekeeping in Africa? ISS Monograph Series No. 36 (ISS, Pretoria, South Africa, 1999), pp. 45–60.
3 The assembly of heads of state and government and the commission of the African Union are the other main organs responsible for the implementation of the policy at the continental level; the regional economic communities are responsible for implementation at regional levels. See Framework for a Common African Defence and Security Policy, chapter IV, paragraphs 14–27, pp. 8–11.
4 It has been reported that at the founding conference of the OAU in 1963, only the leaders of Uganda and Congo spoke in favour of the Nkrumah proposal. See C. O. C. Amate, Inside the OAU: Pan-Africanism in practice (Macmillan, London, 1986), pp. 37–8.
5 On these preoccupations, see Stephen Wright, ‘The changing contexts of African foreign policies’ in Stephen Wright (ed.), African Foreign Policies (Westview, Boulder, CO, 1999), pp. 13–18.
6 See Opening Address by Emperor Haile Selassie to the Conference of African Heads of State and Government 23 May 1963, Organization of African Unity, Proceedings of the Conference of the Independent African States, vol. I, Addis Ababa, May 1963, pp. 3–9.
7 Report of the Secretary General to the 5th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, cited in Addis Ababa, (n.d) paragraph 23, p. 9, and OAU Secretariat, Resolving Conflicts in Africa: Implementation option.
8 For more on this, see Colin Legum, ‘The role of the Organization of African Unity in dealing with violent conflicts’, in Colin Legum et al. (eds), Africa in the 1980s: A continent in crisis (McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, NY, 1979), pp. 38–43.
10 The Causes of Conflict and Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa, Report of the Secretary General to the UN Security Council, 13 April 1998, A/52/871-s/1998/318.
11 Article 3(2) of the Charter of the OAU.
12 The only exception was the Angolan civil war, which broke out at a time when there was no recognized government. The OAU’s approach to the crisis was to give equal recognition to the three warring factions before the external intervention of the Soviets and the Cubans on the side of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Augola (MPLA), and the intervention of South Africa and some western countries on the side of National Movement for the Total Independence of Augola (UNITA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Augola (FNLA) prompted two thirds of OAU member states limiting their support to the MPLA.
13 Ernest Harsch, ‘Africa builds its own security’, Africa Recovery 17, 3 (2003), p. 15. For more on the shifting dynamics of African politics, see Crawford Young, ‘The end of the post-colonial state? Reflections on changing African political dynamics’ African Affairs 103, 410 (2004), pp. 23–49; Hussein Solomon and Maxi van Aardt, ‘Caring’: Security in Africa. Institute of Security Studies Monograph Series No. 20 (ISS, Pretoria, South Africa, 1998).
14 The Cairo Declaration was the concretization of a decision taken a year earlier in Dakar to set up such a body. Declaration of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government on the Establishment Within the OAU of a Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, Doc. AHG/Decl.3 (XXIX), Cairo, Egypt, 30 June 1993.
15 Paras 12 and 15 of the Declaration.
16 African Union, Report on the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa, EX.CL/74 (IV), March 2004.
17 The African Leadership Forum, The Kampala Documents: Towards a Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa (Lagos, Nigeria, 1991), especially the security and stability calabashes, pp. 9–19; Olusegun Obasanjo and Felix G. N. Mosha (eds), Africa: Rise to Challenge – Towards a CSSDCA (Africa Leadership Forum, Lagos, Nigeria, 1993); and African Union, Concept Paper on the Establishment of a Common African Defence and Security Policy (Addis Ababa 2003), pp. 20–1.
18 For a detailed assessment of the regional initiatives, see http://www.iss.co.za/AF/RegOrg/unity_to_union/main.html or their CD-ROM entitled African Regional Organisations: From Unity to Union (2001). Harsch, Africa builds its own security, p. 18; Mark Malan, SADC and Sub-Regional Security; and Eric G. Bernman and Katie E. Sams, Constructive Disengagement: Western efforts to develop African peace keeping. Institute of Security Studies Monograph Series No. 33 (ISS, Pretoria, South Africa, 1998), p. 8.
19 Decision AHG/Dec.168 (XXXVII) adopted by the 37th Session of the Assembly in Lusaka, Zambia, in July 2001.
20 In particular, Article 5(2).
21 Articles 3(b and f) and 4(d).
22 See South Africa Opposes US War on Iraq <http://www.africancrisis.org/ZZZ/ZZZ_News_0823.ASP> accessed on 19 December 2002; see also ‘South Africa tries to avert war in Iraq’, Mercury, 27 January 2003.
23 See South Africa Regrets Iraq War <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2868581.stm> accessed on 20 March 2003.
24 See opening statement by Dr. N. C. Dlamini Zuma, foreign minister of South Africa, at the meeting of experts on Common African Defence and Security Policy, Randburg, South Africa, 27 March 2003.
25 Framework for the Common Africa Defence and Security Policy, para. 5.
28 For an exhaustive list of the threats, see Ibid.
29 See the African Union, The Report of the First Meeting of African Ministers of Defence and Security on the Establishment of African Standby Force and the Common African Defence and Security Policy, MIN/Def.&Sec/Rpt(1) Original: English, p. 4.
30 For an exhaustive list of the principles, see Framework for Common African Defence and Security Policy, paras 11 and 12.
31 Adopted in Durban in 2002 and entered into force in December 2003.
32 Article 7c of the Protocol.
33 Article 7e of the Protocol and Article 4h of the Constitutive Act.
34 Article 7g of the Protocol.
37 At present, the following states serve on the Council: for 3-year term, Gabon, Ethiopia, Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria; and for 2-year term, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Libya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Ghana, Senegal and Togo.
39 Article 8(12) and Rule 29 of the rules of procedure of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.
46 For reactions to the initial proposals for an ASF, see Berman and Sams, Constructive Disengagement.
47 See African Union, Policy Framework for the Establishment of the African Standby Force and the Military Staff Committee (Part I), Exp/ASF-MSC/2(1), May 2003, p. 3.
49 Article 13(8) of the Protocol.
50 Secretary General Kofi Annan’s address to the central organ of the OAU mechanism for conflict prevention, management and resolution, Lome, Togo, 26 March 1997 (SG/SM/6192).
51 A starting point in the realist literature is Hans Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, 5th edn (Knopf, New York, NY, 1978); Kenneth Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1979); Kenneth N. Waltz, ‘Realist thoughts and neo-realist theory’, in Charles W. Kegley, Jr. (ed.), Controversies in International Relations Theory: Realism and the neo liberal challenge (St Martins, New York, NY, 1995), pp. 67–82; Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (CUP, Cambridge, 1981); and for liberalism and neo-liberal interpretations of international relations, see Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence: World politics in transition (Little Brown, Boston, MA, 1977) and Keohane and Nye, ‘Transnational relations and world politics,’ International Organization 25, 3 (1971), pp. 329–50.
52 Kenneth N. Waltz, Man, the State and War (Columbia University Press, New York, NY, 1954) and J. David Singer, ‘The levels of analysis problem’, in James Rosenau (ed.), International Politics and Foreign Policy, rev edn (The Free Press, New York, NY, 1961), pp. 20–9.
53 For more on this see Colin Legum, Africa Since Independence, chapter 3.
54 See Karen Mingst, Essentials of International Relations (W W Norton and Company, New York, NY, 1999), pp. 168–9.
55 See the Report of the First Meeting of African Ministers of Defence and Security on the Establishment of the African Standby Force and the Common African Defence and Security Policy MIN/Def.&Sec/RPt (1) Original: English, January 2004.
56 African Union, Policy Framework for the Establishment of the African Standby Force and the Military Staff Committee, Part II – Annexes, Exp/ASF-MSC/2(1), May 2003, p. B3.
57 Article 17 of the Protocol.
59 See African Union, Policy Framework for the Establishment of the African Standby Force and the Military Staff Committee (Part 1), Exp/ASF-MSC/2(1), p. 24.
60 Commission of the African Union, Talking Points on Burundi: ‘Document presented to the Second Ordinary Session of the Peace and Security Council, in Addis Ababa, 25 March 2004, PSC/PR/Comm/II.
61 African Union, Resource Mobilization for the OAU/AU Peace Fund. Background paper presented to the Third African Peace and Security Agenda Brainstorming Retreat, Cape Town, 1–5 May 2004.
62 Berman and Sams, Constructive Disengagement.
63 Ibid. Also Harsch, ‘Africa builds its own security’, p. 1 and pp. 14–8.
64 African Union, Resource Mobilization for the OAU/AU Peace Fund; and African Union, Policy Framework for the Establishment of the African Standby Force and the Military Staff Committee, Part II – Annexes, Exp/ASF-MSC/2(1), May 2003, p. B6.
65 Figures are based on the SIPRI Year Book 2003, Appendix 10A, Tables 10A.1 and 10A.3.
66 The Economist, ‘Special survey of sub-Saharan Africa’, 7 September 1996, cited in Timothy M. Shaw and Julius E. Nyang’oro, ‘Conclusion: African foreign policies and the next millennium – alternative perspectives, practices and possibilities’, in Stephen Wright (ed.), African Foreign Policies, p. 246.
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