This book examines the role of the African Union in relation to African agency in international politics. It examines the manner and extent to which the African Union exercises two forms of agency—shirking and slippage—in its strategic and collaborative partnerships. The author focuses on four major AU partnerships with the European Union, NATO, the United Nations and US AFRICOM. The books examines African agency in each partnership by exploring the politics and dynamics of each partnership in different aspects: the multilevel engagement, institutionalization, resource contribution and disbursement, as well as preference linkage. It specifically does that by examining African ownership and leadership in all of these aspects. The book highlights the role of agency slack as a survival strategy to escape from the AU’s subaltern position in international politics. It designates the partnership with the European Union as emblematic of African agency; while the others exhibit different forms of agency slack. Partnerships with NATO and the United Nations exhibit shirking, while that with the US AFRICOM exhibits slippage.
Author(s): Tshepo Gwatiwa
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 312
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
Acronyms
List of Tables
1 Introduction
Libya and That Other Thing: An Agential Cudgel
The Problem of African Agency in International Affairs: From Fiction to “Agency Slack”
The African Union and African Agency
African Agency as an Inside-Out Dynamic
Outline of the Chapters
2 African Agency as Agency Slack: From Fiction to Multilateral Empirics
Agency Slack as African Agency: From Fiction and Phantoms to Realities
A Case for African Multilateral Agency as Agency Slack
Foreign Policy as African Agency and African Agency as Foreign Policy
African Union: Foreign Policy Actor and Foreign Policy Maker
The Context of Africa’s Agency Slack in International Affairs: Post-Coloniality, Identity and Ideology
Agents, Elites and African Summitry as Drivers of African Agency
Constituting Actors and Processes at AU: African Foreign Policy Making
3 African Agency in Historical Perspective: A History of Agency Slack
African Agency in the Face of Imperialism and Patronage, 1950s–1990s
France’s Unmasked Colonialism: An Unabashed on African Agency
From Monrovia to Khartoum and Sirte (1960–1999)
Regionalism and Agency: Africa’s Multilateral Arthritis
African Agency Slack in the 1970s: Formation of the Africa-Arab League Partnership
Negotiating African Agency from Within: Conferences and Summitry, 1980s–1990s
4 Agential Challenges Within African Regionalism and Security
Agency in Regional Security Systems: Leadership, Roles and Burden Sharing
Alliances and Coalitions in Regional Security
Burden Sharing and Role Playing in Regional Security
Politics of African Regional Security
Empirics of African Collective Security and Implications for African Agency
The AU Peace and Security Council and the African Security Regime
No Hegemonic Leadership
Decimated Political Will in the Era of Democratisation
Financial Constraints
Mutual Suspicion
Lack of Coercive Power
5 African Agency in the Early Design of African Security Institutions
The Institutionalization of the Peace and Security Council
The Institutionalization of the Pan-African Network of the Panel of the Wise
Continental Early Warning Systems
The African Standby Force
The AU Peace Fund
Agency Without Leadership: An Experiment in Strategic Citizenship
International Partners’ and APSA Institutions: Navigating Agency in the Mission Space
EU Support Towards APSA Institutions
The PSC and the COPS
The African Standby Force and Peace Support Operations
The Africa Peace Facility and the AU Peace Fund
The Early Warning Systems and the PANWISE
UN Support to the APSA
UN Support to the ASF: AU PST to the UNOSOA
UNSC Relationship with the Peace and Security Council
UN Support to the Continental Early Warning Systems
UN Support to the APF: The Parallel Funding
Failed UN Support to PANWISE
NATO Support to APSA
Support to the ASF: Between HQ and the Mission Space
Explaining Lack of Support to the PSC, CEWS, PANWISE, APF
US AFRICOM Support to the AU and APSA
Support to the African Standby Force
Support to the AU Peace Fund
Explaining Lack of Support to CEWS, PANWISE and PSC
Partners’ Support and the Situs of African Agency
6 The Africa–EU Partnership and African Agency: Model or Pareidolia?
Origins of the Partnership
Diplomacy and Engagement: From Lomé to Cotonou
Support Towards APSA Institutions and Latitude for More African Action
The African Standby Force and Peace Support Operations
The Africa Peace Facility and the AU Peace Fund
Preference Coordination Between Africa and Europe
On Palpable Agential Outcomes
Is This an Epitome of African Agency in International Partnerships?
Soft Coercion, Power and Forum Shopping: Teetering on the Verge of Agency Slack?
7 Shirking in AU Partnerships: The UN and NATO
Introduction
The AU–UN Partnership
Origins of the Partnership
Engagement and Contention
Nested Causes of Shirking
Shirking in an Indispensable Partnership
Teetering on the Brink of Full African Agency?
The AU–NATO Partnership
Origins of Contentions in the AU–NATO Partnership
Lackadaisical Diplomacy and Engagement: A Symptom of Shirking
A Continuum of Diverging Preferences and Linked Interests
Sources of Shirking in the AU–NATO Partnership
Teetering on Slippage? AU–NATO Pre-Libyan Intervention
8 Slippage in AU Partnerships: The US Africa Command
Institutional Design of AFRICOM
Origins and Motivations for the Partnership
Institutional Map of the Partnership
Diplomacy and Engagement, 2007–2013
Contentious Preferences
Slippage Between Addis and Washington
Slippage or Another Degree of Shirking?
African Agency in AU and AFRICOM Strategic Futures
9 Conclusion
Diplomatic Engagement and Partnership Outcomes
African Strategic Citizenship
Imperialism, Coloniality and Forum Shopping
The Historical and Chronological Influence on Agency
Major Events in the History of the Partnerships
The Nature of Agreement and Partnerships
Cognitive Regionalism, Security and agency
Interest and Preference Linkage and agency
Caveats on These Conclusions
Wither Agency Slack in the Partnerships
Index
