This article interprets South Africa’s contribution to the evolution and performance of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) of the African Union (AU). It examines the evolution of APSA, provides an overview of the post-apartheid South African government’s Africa policy, and concludes with some insights derived from interviews with South African government officials and analysts.
The key finding is that the South African government displays paradoxical behaviour regarding APSA. On the one hand, it exercises considerable “soft” power and influence throughout Africa, which the report describes as “peace diplomacy”. To a large degree it also shaped the establishment of the AU and its APSA. On the other hand, South Africa underplays its current presence in APSA decision-making structures and processes, thereby undermining its ability to influence the strategic peace and security agendas of key multilateral bodies such as the Southern African Development Community, the AU and, by extension, the United Nations. Several factors underlie this phenomenon, including a tendency to over-extend the country’s diplomatic role. However, the article suggests that this is because of the South African government’s inability to give effect to a comprehensive national security policy framework that ought to guide its choices and behaviour regarding the African peace and security terrain.

The paper examines the envisioned African Standby Force (ASF) to find out if it is an incomplete or failed initiative. The paper is structures into six parts. The first part establishes the boundaries of the paper. The second uses two international relations theories: the system and international organization theories to establish the envisioned ASF as an international structure. The third part establishes best practices: the fourth examines the challenges that impede the successful implementation of the envisioned ASF and reflects on the Common African Defence and Security Policy as the institutional machinery of the envisioned ASF. The fifth part looks at the impact of the African crisis response traditions in relation to the envisioned ASF. The paper uses evident African crisis response traditions to develop theoretical lines of argumentation. The sixth part examines the interoperability enhancing options that could ensure consciously coordinated activities in the African security community. The last part of the paper concludes and makes recommendations for future research.

This paper examines the imperative of African Union’s intervention in the crisis of democratic institutionalization in Egypt. It utilized secondary sources of data in the analysis and interpretation of the current situation in Egypt. Findings show that the current crisis in Egypt and the increasing violence indicate that governance by force and through the exclusion of the Muslim Brotherhood will escalate the crisis and will be very risky for the stability of Egypt and the region. Consequently, the paper calls on the African Union to provide the strategic leadership and the good offices in resolving the crisis. The paper suggests that in doing this, the AU should ensure that the process is founded on unambiguous, predictable conditions and strong institutions supported by popular participation.