Abstract
Relying on literature evidence of some major conflicts in the 21st century Africa such as the Libyan uprising and the genocide in Rwanda, this chapter presents the twin phenomena of the African Union in the present context through the lenses of Realist Theory. Most African states became independent nations around the 1950s and 1960s. At its inception in 1963, the Organization of African Unity calculatedly rejected interferences in African affairs in whatever form. Upon establishment in 2001, the African Union expanded on existing scope, and as a major shift, included the doctrine of legitimate intervention in Member States. Historians argue that the emergence of an artificially constructed African state by Europeans, coupled with internal and yet sophisticated contradictions, truncated the hope for a successful Africa since birth.
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Ekwealor, C.T. (2020). The African Union in the Present Context. In: Rojas Aravena, F. (eds) The Difficult Task of Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21974-1_10
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