The African Union ― Autocracy, Diplomacy and Peacebuilding in Africa

The African Union has been a major factor in establishing peace, security, and development in Africa. Today, however, the intranational body is struggling in the midst of a perceived dissipating appetite for supporting continental institutions.

Previously seen as the panacea to Africa's continuing problems with violence and corruption in society, under the slogan "African Solutions to African Problems," the African Union, this book argues, seems to have run its course. Recognizing that the measured successes in political emancipation which have been recorded across the African continent do not seem to have translated into economic and social gains for its 1.2 billion citizens, the AU adopted a new development framework dubbed "Agenda 2063." The framework calls on African leaders to rediscover the "Pan African" spirit and to create the "Africa Africans want." In practice this means a new focus and engagement with the African Diaspora, tapping into their strong track-record in economic development.

As this book shows however, there remain deep differences over the meaning, timing and sequencing of pan-African integration. Indeed, different member states have different understandings of the role of the African Union itself.

This essential handbook, from one of the leading research institutions on the continent, seeks to uncover what some of those understandings are and why the unification project has remained so elusive.

Tim Murithi is professor extraordinary of African studies at the Centre for African Studies, University of Free State, South Africa; and head of justice and reconciliation in the Africa Programme at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Cape Town. He was previously Claude Ake visiting professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University and Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden. He has more than 23 years of experience in peace, security, governance, transitional justice, and development in Africa, and has held posts at the Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford, United Kingdom; the Institute for Security Studies, Addis Ababa; the Centre for Conflict Resolution, University of Cape Town; and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Geneva, Switzerland. He has served as an adviser/consultant to the African Union (AU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and German GiZ. He is on the international advisory boards of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development, the African Journal of Conflict Resolution, and African Peace and Conflict Journal, and the journal Peacebuilding. He has authored more than 85 journal articles, book chapters, and policy papers, and is author and editor of nine books, including author of The African Union: Pan-Africanism, Peacebuilding, and Development (2005) and The Ethics of Peacebuilding (2009); co-editor of Zimbabwe in Transition: A View from Within (2011) and The Politics of Transitional Justice in the Great Lakes Region of Africa (2016); and editor of The Routledge Handbook of Africa’s International Relations (2014).

Dr. Tony Karbo is executive director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR) in Cape Town, South Africa. Previously, Karbo served as director of the Karamoja Cluster Project (KCP) and managing editor of the Africa Peace and Conflict Journal at the University for Peace, Africa Programme. As part of its mandate in the Africa Programme of the UN Mandated University for Peace, Karbo taught in universities across the Great Lakes region, the Horn of Africa, and in Eastern, Southern, and Western Africa. He is a former senior lecturer at the Institute of Peace, Leadership, and Governance (IPLG) at Africa University in Zimbabwe. Karbo has worked extensively in Africa with numerous organizations working in conflict zones, facilitating training in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, and in monitoring and evaluating election processes and programmes. Karbo served as the Southern and Eastern Africa representative for the Institute of Multi-Track Diplomacy (IMTD), a peacebuilding organisation based in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and an associate director and trainer of the South-North Center for Peacebuilding and Development. Karbo holds a master's degree and doctorate from the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, Virginia.