Eu Support To African Security Architecture

The humanitarian crises caused by civil conflicts and wars in Africa are too great in scope for an adequate and effective continental response. The founding of the African Union and the drafting of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, the basis for collective action against genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity makes this a critical time to reflect on how best to address regional conflicts. This book responds to new regional conflicts over health, water, land and food security in the world's poorest, most socially fragmented continent. The work assesses African regional security arrangements and provides new policy recommendations for the future.

This book brings to fruition the research done during the CEA-ISCTE project ‘’Monitoring Conflicts in the Horn of Africa’’, reference PTDC/AFR/100460/2008. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) provided funding for this project. The chapters are based on first-hand data collected through fieldwork in the region’s countries between 4 January 2010 and 3 June 2013. The project’s team members and consultants debated their final research findings in a one-day Conference at ISCTE-IUL on 29 April 2013. The following authors contributed to the project’s final publication: Alexandra M. Dias, Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, Aleksi Ylönen, Ana Elisa Cascão, Elsa González Aimé, Manuel João Ramos, Patrick Ferras, Pedro Barge Cunha and Ricardo Real P. Sousa.

This book analyses security cooperation in the domain of inter-regionalism, addressing the emergence of the African Union as a regional actor and its impact on EU-Africa relations. It explores the transformative potential of security cooperation for equality, partnership and local ownership in EU-Africa relations.

This volume offers an informed and critical analysis of the operationalization and institutionalization of the peace and security architecture by the African Union and Africa's Regional Economic Communities (RECs). In creating this architecture, the African Union and the RECs tread new ground with potentially significant consequences to the lives and livelihoods of millions of Africans who are affected by war and armed conflict. In-depth, critical chapters inform, clarify and provide key points for reflection on the architecture as a whole as well as on each of the structures currently under implementation. The volume examines the institutions that will carry the mandate forward, raises pertinent research questions for the successful operationalization of the architecture and debates the medium and long-term challenges to implementation. Students and researchers of African approaches to peace building, conflict resolution and regional security will benefit from the deep and critical engagement of issues covered in this volume by world renowned scholars and practitioners.

The Joint Africa-European Union Strategy (JAES), adopted at the Lisbon Summit in December 2007, was conceived to overcome the unequal partnership between the African and European continents by establishing a framework of cooperation based on shared values and common objectives. In particular, it was designed as an inclusive and people-centred partnership, aimed at involving both institutional and non-institutional actors beyond the Brussels-Addis Ababa axis. However, already during the first implementation phase (2008-2010), it became clear that these conditions were far from being fully realized and needed a longer timeframe to display their potential. The Tripoli Summit in November 2010 and the second Action Plan (2011-2013) have tried to address some of these problems, but full implementation of the Joint Strategy is still a work in progress. This study analyses the sub-optimal involvement of two main stakeholders, namely African regional organizations - Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Mechanisms (RMs) - and civil society actors, especially non-governmental organizations. It addresses current engagement in and the potential of civil society's contribution to Africa-EU relations in the field of peace and security, by looking at their interaction with institutions on the continent and their added value in sectors such as early warning, crisis management, mediation and training. Finally, it offers some policy recommendations for the future implementation of the Joint Strategy, in particular on the issues of dialogue, capacity-building and funding. This study has been conducted by IAI in the framework of the project "Strengthening the Africa-EU partnership on peace and security: how to engage African regional organisations and civil society", commissioned by the Brussels-based Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) with the support of the European Parliament. Main findings and policy recommendations published also as IAI Working Paper 1228.