Spatializing Practices of Regional Organizations during Conflict Intervention

Herpolsheimer, Jens

doi:10.4324/9781003106647

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Historically, the two most important peace projects IGAD has contributed to are the African Union Mission in Somalia and mediation in Sudan and South Sudan (Bereketeab, 2019, p. 140). IGAD’s peace and security engagements are within the AU’s peace and security agenda, (Herpolsheimer, 2021) outlined in the APSA although modalities of collaboration between the two remain to be seen (Coe & Nash, 2020). IGAD is equally reputed for its inclination to non-military solutions to regional conflicts (Back, 2020, pp.…”

Section: Intergovernmental Authority On Development-led Peace Process...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Complexities of international mediation at sub-regional levels in Africa: lessons from South Sudan

Magara

2022

JACPR

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Purpose The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has been mediating the South Sudan conflict since 2013. IGAD’s intervention in South Sudan is anchored on its founding norm of peaceful settlement of regional conflicts and in reference to the principle of subsidiarity, under the Africa Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). However, it is puzzling how violence continued unabated even as conflict parties negotiated and signed numerous agreements under the auspices of IGAD. The parties to conflict seem unwilling to implement the 2018 peace agreement, which is arguably un-implementable. Yet, it appears that IGAD mediators were privy to this situation all along. The question that then arises is why IGAD would continue engaging in a mediation process that neither ends violence nor offers a promise of a resolution? Drawing out on empirical data, this paper argues that IGAD’s organisational structures and functionality are key to understanding and explaining the South Sudan phenomenon within broader discourses on peace and security regionalism in Africa. This paper suggests the need to pay attention to the embeddedness of political power dynamics in the structures and functionality of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such as IGAD, as one of the ways to (re)thinking and (re)orienting norms and practices of regional conflict management within the APSA and in pursuit of the “African solutions to African problems.” Design/methodology/approach Data for this paper was obtained through document reviews and 39 elite interviews. The interviews were conducted with representatives of IGAD member states, bureaucrats of IGAD and its organs mediation support teams, conflict parties, diplomats and other relevant experts purposively selected based on their role in the mediation. The physical interviews were conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda, with others conducted virtually. Analysis and presentation of findings are largely perspectival, highlighting coexistence of contending peacemaking ideas and practices. The discussions centre around inter-linked themes of IGAD’s conceptions of peace and approaches to peacemaking as informed by its structural and functional designs. Findings Findings illustrate the complexity of the peace process and the centrality of power politics in IGAD’s peace and security arrangements. In view of the findings, this paper echoes the need for enhanced and predictable collaborative framework between IGAD and the African Union (AU) as central to the operationalisation of the APSA and pursuit of the African solutions to the African problems. Hence, this paper suggests transforming IGAD’s political program into a robust political bureau with predictable interlinkages and structured engagements between IGAD’s heads of state and government and the APSA’s Panel of the Wise (PoW). Originality/value The study is based on empirical data obtained through the researcher's own framed questions, and its argument is based on the researcher's own interpretations innovatively framed within existing theoretical framework, particularly hybrid peace theory. Based on the findings, this paper makes bold and practical recommendations for possible workable collaborative framework between IGAD and the AU under the APSA framework

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Section: Intergovernmental Authority On Development-led Peace Process...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Complexities of international mediation at sub-regional levels in Africa: lessons from South Sudan

Magara

2022

JACPR

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African Union Non-Military Conflict Interventions

Engel

2023

The Palgrave Handbook of Diplomatic Thought and Practice in the Digital Age

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Spaces of (in-)security and intervention: spatial competition and the politics of regional organizations in the Sahel

Baldaro

Lucia

2022

Territory, Politics, Governance

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This article investigates the interactions between three regional organizationsthe G5 Sahel, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Unionin the context of the Sahelian conflict. It argues that these organizations struggle for recognition by the international community and by their member states as the most legitimate regional security actor in the management of the conflict. By focusing on the politics driving these organizations' interactions, this article makes two contributions. First, it complements and expands the literature on regional security governance by showing how these regional organizations are driven by legitimation struggles framed through spatial imaginaries. Each organization delineates a specific space of interventionthe Sahel, West Africa, the Sahelo-Saharato present itself as the right scale of governance. Second, identifying these spatial imaginaries enables a better understanding of African responses to the conflict in the Sahel, and provides insights into the reordering of (West) African security governance and, more broadly, the emergence of new modalities of security governance.

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Spatializing Practices of Regional Organizations during Conflict Intervention

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Complexities of international mediation at sub-regional levels in Africa: lessons from South Sudan

Complexities of international mediation at sub-regional levels in Africa: lessons from South Sudan

African Union Non-Military Conflict Interventions

Spaces of (in-)security and intervention: spatial competition and the politics of regional organizations in the Sahel

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