African Peace Missions

Key Findings & Recommendations | Research papers & Case Studies | Research team

This project was supported by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Carnegie Corporation of New York with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the World Peace Foundation.

In July 2016, the World Peace Foundation released its report, ‘African Politics African Peace.’ The Report is the most extensive review of the African Union’s peace missions ever conducted.  It charts an agenda for peace in Africa, focusing on how the African Union can implement its norms and use its instruments to prevent and resolve armed conflicts.  It is an independent report of the World Peace Foundation, supported by the African Union.  It is based on detailed case studies and cross-cutting research, and draws on consultations with leading experts, peacekeepers, and mediators. It covers African peace and security norms and mechanisms, including conflict prevention, conflict mediation, political missions and the spectrum of military peace operations.“Peace missions” include political engagement and peace support operations.

The report was launched on July 21, 2016 in Addis Ababa. Its main findings, recommendations and full text are available below. You can also access the case studies and research that helped to inform the report, as well as downloadable versions of all charts used in the report and two short videos conveying the main ideas of the report.

This study was initiated in December 2014 as a contribution to the African Union’s review of peace missions in Africa, with a view to informing the policies of the AU related to peacekeeping operations, stabilization/enforcement missions, conflict prevention, conflict mediation and political missions.  Amb. Smail Chergui, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, supported the project throughout. In this regard, the World Peace Foundation initially produced a briefing, “Peace Missions in Africa: Constraints, Challenges, and Opportunities” (March 2015) by Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe and Alex de Waal, to assist the AU Commission in its engagement with the UN High-level Independent Panel on Peace Operations.The final report of the review process, African Politics, African Peace was launched on July 21, 2016.

We are particularly pleased that the preface to the report was jointly authored by former South African President Thabo Mbeki and Algerian/United Nations diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, and the report was presented to the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, Smail Chergui, in July 2016.


Key Findings

After the African Union was founded in 2000, the level of armed conflict in Africa dropped to an all-time low. But today conflicts are again increasing—due to conflicted government transitions, inter-state rivalries, and violent extremism.
The African Union should return to its founding principles of collective security, constitutional democracy, solidarity for protecting civilians from violence across borders, and inclusivity in peace processes..
Africa’s

The Report emphasizes the “primacy of the political”:

  • Reaffirming and implementing Africa’s hard-won peace and security norms;
  • African ownership of the goals and strategies for peace and security;
  • Emphasizing conflict prevention and resolution; and
  • Ensuring that military peace support operations are designed and implemented with political goals always in mind.

Key Recommendations

  • Strengthen commitment to the key AU norms: multilateralism, constitutional democracy, non-indifference and inclusivity.
  • Strengthen the core instruments of the AU Peace and Security Council and Peace and Security Department.
  • Integrate the African Peace and Security Architecture with better coordination between the AU, the United Nations, Africa’s Regional Economic Communities, and regional organizations for Europe and the Arab countries.
  • Create new mechanisms for addressing the security crises of Africa’s “shared spaces”—the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
  • Establish High-Level Panels and Expert Committees for situations at most risk of conflict.
  • Develop separate mechanisms and doctrines for distinct kinds of peace support operations, namely preventative missions, traditional peacekeeping missions, and stabilization operations conducted by “coalitions of the willing”.
  • Clearly prioritize the protection of civilians in all peace missions, and create and enforce an AU policy of Zero Tolerance for Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Civilians.
  • Strengthen the AU-UN partnership, allocating tasks based on the two organizations’ comparative strengths and capabilities.
  • Ensure that the core activities of the AU Commission and political missions are fully financed.

Research papers

Paper No. 1THE APSA: NORMS AND STRUCTURES FOR AU’S PEACE MISSIONSMulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe
Paper No. 2CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES OF GOVERNMENT AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES IN AFRICA
 
 Solomon Dersso
Paper No. 3MANDATES OR ‘BLIND’ DATES? ADDRESSING THE CHALLENGES OF MANDATE DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES SUPPORTING AFRICAN PEACE OPERATIONS
 
Ann Fitz-Gerald, Paula MacPhee, and Olga Romanova
Paper No. 4AFRICAN SOLUTIONS TO AFRICAN CHALLENGES?: A STATISTICAL OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION IN CIVIL WARS IN AFRICAAllard Duursma
Paper No. 5BOTTOM-UP OR TOP-DOWN? THE NEED FOR A RELEVANT,‘GROUNDED’ AND DISTINGUISHING PEACE OPERATIONS DOCTRINE FOR THE AFRICAN STANDBY FORCEAnn Fitz-Gerald
Paper No. 6AMISOM: CHARTING A NEW COURSE FOR AFRICAN UNION PEACE MISSIONS Dawit Yohannes Wondemagegnehu and Daniel Gebreegziabher Kebede
Paper No. 7REFLECTIONS ON PEACE IN SUDAN Alex de Waal
Paper No. 8ADVANCING AN ANTI-ATROCITY AGENDA FOR THE 21ST CENTURY Bridget Conley
Paper No. 9PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS FROM SEXUAL AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE (SGBV) INSIGHTS FOR AFRICAN UNION PEACE MISSIONS               Dyan Mazurana
Paper No. 10HITTING THE POLITICAL HEART OF DECISION-MAKING POWER: TARGETED SANCTIONS, MULTILATERAL PEACE MISSIONS AND THE KEY ROLE OF UN PANELS OF EXPERTS IN AFRICA Benjamin J. Spatz
Paper No. 11INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTIONS IN LIBYA SINCE 2011: LESSONS LEARNED Jean-Louis Romanet Perroux and Tarek Megerisi
Paper No. 12THE AFRICAN UNION AND RESPONSES TO THE CRISIS IN LIBYA Dawit Toga
Paper No. 13LESSONS FROM AU-UN COOPERATION IN PEACE OPERATIONS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR) Tatiana Carayannis andMignonne Fowlis
Paper No. 14LESSONS FROM AU-UN COOPERATION IN PEACE OPERATIONS IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC) Tatiana Caryannis andAaron Pangburn
Paper No. 15THE UNITED NATIONS MISSION IN LIBERIA Lansana Gberie
Paper No. 16TRANSITION FROM WAR TO PEACE: The Ethiopian DDR experienceMulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe
Paper No. 17THE POST-TRANSITION ETHIOPIAN SSR EXPERIENCEMulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe
Paper No. 18DO MEDIATIONS FORGE MISSIONS WITHOUT END? Dynamics of mission exitSophia Dawkins
Paper No. 19INTERSTATE TRANSNATIONAL ARMED POLITICS IN AFRICANoel Twagiramungu
Paper No. 20THE EVOLUTION OF POST CONFLICT SECURITY SECTOR REFORM IN AFRICASarah Detzner
Paper No. 21DECODING THE TRIUMPH OF DOCTRINE: The success of Ghana’s international peace support operationsJohn Parkyendu Frinjuah
Paper No. 22BEHIND THE CLICHÉ OF THE ‘DESERT WARRIORS’: Militarized politics and Idriss Déby’s global political capital Marielle Debos
Paper No. 23 PEACE SUPPORT OPERATIONS IN SOUTH SUDAN Abebe Teklehaymanot Kahsay

Case Studies


Research Team

Alex de Waal
Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe
Headshot of Sophia Dawkins
Sophia Dawkins
Headshot of Sarah Detner
Sarah Detzner
Headshot of Ben Spatz
Ben Spatz

Photo: African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Albert González Farran, UNAMID, 8 December 2013 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)