(Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, 2017) Jordaan, Evert
The promotion of peace and security in Africa necessitates security
cooperation between states and collective security remains a way to
pursue it. This paper explores the changed meaning and application of
the concept of collective security within the African Peace and Security
Architecture (APSA) to deal with both interstate and intrastate security
concerns within the African Union (AU). Since the AU has made clear
commitments to collective security, the aim is to determine to what
extent the AU subscribed to collective security and applied it in terms of
coercion, which includes interventions. While dealing with genocide,
war crimes and extended presidential terms remains problematic, the
AU has taken an assertive stand with the use of coercion in cases of
unconstitutional changes of government. The article highlights the tension
between the theory and practice of collective security in Africa.