Skip to main content

The African Union as an International Actor

  • Chapter
Africa and the New World Era

Abstract

This chapter will assess the role of the African Union (AU) as an international actor. The continental body has a dual role of forging unity among its member states and advocating for their interests internationally. The AU’s role as an international actor is complicated by the difficulty of promoting consensus among African states and then maintaining that consensus in the face of often divergent national interests. There are a selection of issues in which the AU has served as a rallying vehicle for Africa interests, particularly in the field of peace and security, on development and trade issues as well as on climate change. This chapter will assess the role of the AU in articulating collective and joint policies and in making interventions in international decision and policymaking circles.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. Kwame Nkrumah, Africa Must Unite (London: Panaf, 1963).

    Google Scholar 

  2. African Union, Solemn Declaration on a Common African Defence and Security Policy (Addis Ababa: African Union, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  3. African Union, Protocol Relating to the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (Addis Ababa: African Union, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  4. United Nations, Report of the Secretary-General on the Deployment of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  5. James Jonah, “The Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, and the Secretariat,” in ed. Adekeye Adebajo, From Global Apartheid to Global Village: Africa and the United Nations (Scotsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009), 71.

    Google Scholar 

  6. African Union, The Common African Position on the Proposed Reform of the United Nations: The Ezulwini Consensus, EXT/EX.CL/2 (VII) (Addis Ababa: African Union, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Adekeye Adebajo, ed., From Global Apartheid to Global Village: Africa and the United Nations (Scotsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009), 19.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Walter Rodney, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Harare: Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1981), 3.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood, Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787 (London: Routledge, 2003), 165.

    Google Scholar 

  10. G. Dogbey, “Towards a Strategic Vision for a Continent in Distress,” African Voices, African Visions (Stockholm: Nordic Africa Institute, 2001): 40.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Wiseman Nkhulu, The New Partnership for Africa’s Development: The Journey So Far (Midrand: NEPAD Secretariat, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  12. New Partnership for Africa’s Development, The African Peer Review Mechanism (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  13. New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), African Post-Conflict Reconstruction Policy Framework (Midrand: NEPAD Secretariat, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Patrick Bond, Fanon’s Warning: A Civil Society Reader on the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Trenton, NJ: AIDC, 2002).

    Google Scholar 

  15. George Monbiot, “Africa is Forced to Take the Blame for the Devastation Inflicted on it by the Rich World,” The Guardian, June 25, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ayesha Kajee, “NEPAD’s APRM: A Progress Report, Practical Limitations and Challenges,” in South African Yearbook of International Affairs (Johannesburg: South African Institute of International Affairs, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  17. Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford University Press, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Editor information

Jack Mangala

Copyright information

© 2010 Jack Mangala

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Murithi, T. (2010). The African Union as an International Actor. In: Mangala, J. (eds) Africa and the New World Era. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230117303_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics