Department of Political Science

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Browsing Department of Political Science by Subject "Adlern and Barnett"

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    A security community in Africa : a critical assessment of the African Union’s contribution towards the construction of a potential security community since 2002
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012-03) De Vos, Johannes Nicolaas; Swart, Gerrie S.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis seeks to provide a critical discussion of the contributions of the African Union towards the potential development of an African security community since its inception in 2002. Utilising Security Community Theory, and the framework for the study of security communities developed by Adler & Barnett (1998) it commences with an interrogation of the AU. This interrogation is arranged along the three tiers of the framework. The first tier is the precipitating conditions, which cause states to orient themselves in each other’s direction and desire to coordinate their relations. The second tier investigates the factors conducive to the development of mutual trust and collective identity. The third, and final, tier identifies the necessary conditions of dependable expectations of peaceful change. The study goes on and introduces three African case studies, which illustrate the contributions of the African Union towards the potential development of an African security community. The case studies are the African Union mission in Burundi, the African Union mission in Sudan, and the recent intervention of the African Union in the post-election crisis in Côte d'Ivoire. All three case studies were able to provide ample evidence to illustrate the AU’s contributions. The study concludes with two major findings. Firstly, this study is able to illustrate that the AU has made significant contributions towards the development of peace and security in Africa. Secondly, that the AU has made significant contributions at all three tiers of the framework, and therefore major contributions to the potential development of an African security community. However, the AU is still in its embryonic phase, and any prediction concerning the existence, or potential existence of an African security community would be premature. Even though there are ostensibly, positive developments in the area of continental peace and security this study is able to illustrate several remaining challenges to further contributions by the AU. The first is a lack of resources. The AU is heavily dependent on the contributions of its member states, and a number of members persistently fail to meet their contributions to the organization. A second challenge is the loosely defined relationship with the UN (and other external partners). It is crucial that a constructive relationship be established, if not, differences might antagonise the two organisations and negatively affect any future contributions of the AU towards the development of an African security community. Finally, the role of core states, most notably regional hegemons such as South Africa and Nigeria will remain important for stabilizing and encouraging the further development of an African security community.