Hybrid Regionalism in Africa Towards a Theory of African Union Interventions

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Niklas Krösche

Since its establishment, the African Union (AU) takes on an active role in regional security matters through different types of interventions. These interventions, however, remain undertheorized. This paper argues that African hybrid regionalism, which combines problem-solving and regime-serving logics of cooperation, shapes the AU's intervention practice in specific ways. To this end, I first theorize how the parallel presence of these logics shapes AU interventions before probing the empirical validity by studying coercive interventions undertaken by the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) between 2005 and 2021. For this purpose, I employ methods of content analysis to systematically code all publicly available meeting documents issued by the PSC. The results demonstrate that the AU strives to prevent and manage crises through interventions but does so in ways that protect or promote incumbent regimes, either by producing direct benefits for them or, when their actions contribute to the crisis, by avoiding head-on confrontations. This suggests careful balancing of the two main impetuses in African security regionalism, namely solving transnational problems and serving the interests of incumbents.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAfrican and Asian Studies
Volume22
Issue number1-2
Pages (from-to)39-62
Number of pages24
ISSN1569-2094
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Niklas Krösche, 2023 |

    Research areas

  • African Union, hybrid regionalism, interventions, problem-solving, regime-serving
  • Politics

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Wei Guo
  2. Jörn Oldenburg

Publications

  1. Digitalization, structuration and agency in organizations concerned with the placement of refugee parents in institutions of early childhood care and education
  2. §§ 1–13 Hohe-See-Einbringungsgesetz (HSEG)
  3. Ehrenbaum-Degele, Hans
  4. Waldwirtschaft
  5. Driving anger expression in Germany—Validation of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory for German drivers
  6. Overcome procrastination
  7. Formen des Biodiversitätsmanagements
  8. Kurzgeschichte
  9. Fluchtpunkt Humanentwicklung
  10. Gefahrenwahrnehmung im Straßenverkehr
  11. Compete or Cooperate in the Creative Industry?
  12. § 352 Aufrechnung nach Nichterfüllung
  13. Age of Voting
  14. "Doppelter Praxisschock" auf dem Weg ins Lehramt?
  15. Staying with the Secret
  16. New Data from Official Statistics for Imports and Exports of Goods by German Enterprises
  17. OS4Future
  18. Die Lüneburger Ziegeleien des 19. Jahrhunderts
  19. § 46 Abfallberatungspflicht
  20. The benefit of long-term growth hormone (GH) replacement therapy in hypopituitary adults with GH deficiency
  21. Der Mucha - Ein Anfangsverdacht
  22. Solarpflicht durch Bundesgesetz
  23. Lernen an realitätsnahen Fallbeispielen mit computerunterstützter Kommunikation
  24. Metallurgical aspects of joining commercially pure titanium to Ti-6Al-4V alloy in a T-joint configuration by laser beam welding
  25. Sozio-Controlling
  26. Performance improvement through Human Resource Management
  27. Der "Anschein eines besonders günstigen Angebots" im Sinne des § 16 Abs.1 UWG
  28. Die Angst vor Migration. Gefühle als Modus politischen Denkens
  29. Die Quadratur des Bermudadreiecks
  30. HyperImage - Bildorientierte E-Science-Netzwerke
  31. § 33 Solare Strahlungsenergie an oder auf Gebäuden
  32. Von Füchsen und Igeln
  33. National Stereotypes as Literary Device
  34. Kommentar zum Fachlehrplan Chemie (Mittelschule/AHS Unterstufe)
  35. Gesellschaftliche Partizipation an Technisierungsprozessen
  36. Regulierung der nachhaltigen Corporate Governance?