African Peace: Regional Norms From the Organization of African Unity to the African Union

African regional organizations have played leading roles in constructing collective conflict management rules for the continent. Currently, the African Union (AU) authorizes peace support operations and actively engages to resolve internal conflicts. Just a few decades ago these actions would have been deeply controversial under the Organization of African Unity (OAU). What changed to allow for this transformation in the way the African regional organization approaches peace and security? The book examines why the OAU chose norms that prioritized state security in 1963 leading to a policy of non-interference even in the face of destabilizing violence and why the AU chose very different norms leading to a disparate conflict management policy of non-indifference in the early 2000s. It argues that new peace and security norms emerged largely from within the African region and international influence was not a determinant factor.