Analyzing African Union's Approach to Regional Security Issues

This essay examines the effectiveness of the African Union (AU) in addressing regional security challenges, highlighting its establishment, frameworks, and collaborations. It identifies the AU's strategic approach, including the African Peace and Security Architecture, and its coordination with the United Nations and the European Union. The essay also explores factors that either promote or hinder cooperation within Africa, such as dependency on developed countries, divided loyalties among member states, and varying levels of commitment to AU objectives. Conversely, common challenges like insecurity and a growing embrace of democracy are identified as drivers of cooperation. The analysis concludes that while challenges remain, the AU's collaborative efforts are showing promise in fostering development and addressing security issues across the African continent. Desklib provides access to this essay along with a wealth of study resources and solved assignments for students.

Running head: AFRICAN UNION
International relation
Name
ID
Course
Unit
Lecturer
Date

AFRICAN UNION 2
The effectiveness of the African Union in addressing regional security.
The African Union is formed by fifty-five nations which have come together with the
objective of addressing challenges they faced during the colonial error. One of the problems that
the union face is the insecurity in the African region according to Adebajo (2015). However,
there are strategies that the Union has put in place to enable it fights the challenges. The
approach defines its effectiveness in addressing security. The first thing that proves its efficacy is
that African Union has outlined the failures of the first union, that is OAU and established a
framework to curb the loopholes according to Varin, (2016). For instance, what was causing
challenges of security is lack of a joint army. The African Union have come up with a directive
where every member contributes some armed forces to address insecurity in different areas.
Apart from that, the union has a framework called African Peace and Security Architecture
which provide ways of dealing with danger. For example, in the architecture, there is peace and
security council which is constituted by fifteen members. The commission is in charge of
intervening the cases of insecurity and initiate vibrant ways of addressing the issues.
Consequently, AU has established strong coordination with the United Nations in matters
of security. In cases where there is insecurity, the union develops a joint task force between UN
armies and its army to fulfill the mandate of restoring peace in the region in reference to
Dembinski, Matthias, and Berenike Schott, (2014). Besides that, the African Union has gone
ahead to partner with other international bodies. For example, it coordinates with European
Union achieve peace operation mission that aims at maintaining security in the African region.
What makes cooperation more or less likely in Africa?

AFRICAN UNION 3
Murithi, (2017) says that, there several issues that threaten cooperation in Africa. The
first main issue is a continued dependency on the developed countries such as Europe. The
develop states take advantage of the situation, more resources that would have been used in
strengthening the cooperation are carried away by the European countries. Secondly, the
countries which form African Union are still members of other unions such as ECOWAS in
reference to Makinda, Okumu & Mickler, (2015). They face divided loyalty in that all the unions
need resources to run, but the country has little resources. It forces it to choose where to take the
funds. Apart from the above issues, another thing is that there are leaders who do not embrace
the AU objectives in their countries, for example, human rights.
On the other side of the coin, some issues promote cooperation in Africa. The first one is
that the countries face common challenges hence the call for unity. For instance, the problem of
insecurity, refugees, and disasters are standard in all the nations. Another important factor is
likely to promote cooperation is that many African countries have started embracing democracy
according to Kimenyi, Mwangi and Katrin Kuhlmann, (2012). Many leaders who were defying
the call for collaboration are out of power. Almost all the states have identified the fruits that
come with cooperation. Countries are developing; security challenges are addressed faster than
they were before. It is predictable that the level of collaboration will rise higher in the future than
today.

AFRICAN UNION 4
References
Adebajo, Adekeye. (, 2015.) “The Curse of Berlin: Africa After the Cold War.” United Nations
University, video. September 17
Dembinski, Matthias, and Berenike Schott. (June 2014) “Regional Security Arrangements as a
Filter for Norm Diffusion: the African Union, the Euroopean Union and the
Responsibility to Protect.” Cambridge Review Of International Affairs 27, no. 2, p. 362-
380. EBSCOhost
Kimenyi, Mwangi S., and Katrin Kuhlmann. (2012) “African Union: Challenges and Prospects
for Regional Integration in Africa.” Journal Of Diplomacy & International Relations 13,
no. 2, p. 7-27. EBSCOhost.
Makinda, S. M., Okumu, F. W., & Mickler, D. (2015). The African Union: Addressing the
challenges of peace, security, and governance. Routledge.
Murithi, T. (2017). The African Union: pan-Africanism, peacebuilding and development.
Routledge.
Varin, Caroline. (2016) “Regional Security And Cooperation: Chapter Five.” In Boko Haram
and the War on Terror, Caroline Varin. New York: Praeger Publishers, p. 97-114.