This article presents a critical analysis of the impact (influence) of the theory of liberalism on the United Nations’ (UN) and Africa Union’s (AU) approach to global peace and security. There are various and sometimes conflicting theories of international relations relating to how world politics functions, including international and regional peace and security. Which theory of international relations and peace would explain the United Nations' role in promoting worldwide peace and security, as well as the African Union's role in promoting regional peace and security within the African continent? Even though this question is difficult to answer and no single theory can fully capture the complexities surrounding the issues at hand, this article contends that the liberal peace framework has had a profound influence on the creation of the United Nations and the African Union, as well as their roles in international and regional peace and security. To this purpose, the study adopts a qualitative critical research strategy with secondary data collection and analytical approaches which comprise characterizing, thematizing, and contextualizing the topic at hand. The paper explains how liberalism influenced the essential thinking, values and norms, institutional legitimacy and mandate. It also conceptualizes and operationalizes peace and security concerns at the UN and AU. This is tied to UN-led global action which, when paired with the AU's considerable continental role, illustrates liberalism's impact in terms of laws, conventions, principles, and practices, facilitating cooperative peacebuilding efforts. Despite some critical theoretical and practical shortcomings, this paper argues that liberalism is still essential to achieving the UN’s and AU's, agenda for global peace and security.

The 1990s global transition to democratisation and subsequent public sector reforms to strengthen democratic governance in Africa represents a complete ‘rupture’ with past authoritarianism and other exclusionary politics prior to democratisation. However, current governance and democratic practices in the continent still reflect features of an ‘authoritarian past.’ In fact, this article is timely especially in this period where tensions and conflicts in contemporary Africa remain linked to problems of democratic governance and inclusive development, especially as Africans embark on their current ‘emerging agendas.’ As such, picking out the ‘legacy of authoritarianism’ and interrogating whether this background has any bearing on the quality of democratic governance in contemporary Africa, the analysis reveals that normatively, particular incumbents and state officials promote a governance process that is democratic in outlook but in actual sense, their authoritarian and exclusionary impulses as well as their desire to maintain power by all cost, have interacted in contributing to the current democratic governance deficits in the continent. The article cautions that reducing the explanation of such an antithesis of the democratic theory, to the legacy of authoritarianism, could limit our conceptual and practical understanding of some of the shortcomings of neoliberal democratic intervention in African democratisation. It concludes that without a governance system rested on democratic values with ‘African roots—a culturally sustainable democracy,’ all national, sub-regional and continental socio-economic development efforts are condemned from the outset.

A mesure que le Cameroun se modernise, la question des déchets dans la ville de Yaoundé occupe une place importante dans l’agenda des élites politico-dirigeantes. La croissance démographique rapide et l’industrialisation croissante sont productrices d’une quantité débordante des déchets dont les effets sur la santé et la sécurité des populations se font ressentir. Cet article se veut une réflexion critique du monopole octroyé à HYSACAM dans la gestion technique des déchets dans la ville de Yaoundé. Sur le plan méthodologique, cette réflexion s’appuie sur la recherche documentaire, l’investigation auprès des institutions directement concernées et sur un protocole d’enquête essentiellement qualitative dressé aux populations de Yaoundé. En s’encrant sur l’incrémentalisme, elle met en exergue le tâtonnement et le bricolage qui caractérisent la politique de gestion des déchets dans la ville de Yaoundé. Dit autrement, la politique de gestion des déchets dans la ville de Yaoundé s’inscrit dans un schéma de débrouillardise et de tâtonnement permanent, se caractérisant par des va-et-vient et des essais-recommencements infinis. Cette étude postule qu’on ne saurait envisager, en plein essor de la gouvernance décentralisée, une politique de gestion efficace des déchets en faisant abstraction au « marché » des partenaires techniques, qui suppose une démonopolisation d’HYSACAM dans la gestion technique des déchets dans la ville de Yaoundé.