How Africa Can Finally Provide Its Own Security
Sub-Saharan states have made real progress in building their own security. Here’s how they can do even better and how can help
African Union Mission in Somalia soldiers take up new positions in northern Mogadishu / Reuters
Given the tumultuous decade since 9/11, it’s easy to overlook one of
the world’s unsung success stories: the spread of peace, prosperity, and
good governance across much of sub-Saharan Africa. This hopeful trend
is challenging the still-common Western view that Africa is doomed to be
the perpetual ward of the international community. Fifty years after
decolonization, Africans are shrugging off a sad legacy of violent
conflict, stagnant growth, and venal political leadership.
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One force behind this transformation is the African Union
(AU), which succeeded the dysfunctional Organization of African Unity
(OAU) in May 2001. A decade after its founding, however, the AU suffers
from serious shortcomings in its ability to implement its grandiose
ambitions. The goal of U.S. policy, as George Washington University
professor Paul D. Williams argues
in a new Council on Foreign Relations report, must be to help the AU
close this “capabilities-expectations gap.” In short, Washington must
persuade African leaders to commit themselves politically and
financially to a more robust AU system of conflict management, including
effective mechanisms for early warning, political mediation, coercive
sanctions, and peacekeeping. Rather than charity, this would be an
investment in the stability of a continent increasingly important for
U.S. counterterrorism efforts, energy security, and trade and investment
opportunities–not
Category: Africa News
