The AU Peace and Security Council: A Five Year Appraisal (2004-2009)

EXPERT ROUNDTABLE AND MONOGRAPH

Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th March 2010, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The Institute for Security Studies through its Addis Ababa-based African Conflict Prevention Programme invites policy-makers, academics, practitioners, policy researchers to submit abstracts, and subsequently papers, which will assess a broad range of issues relating to the AU Peace and Security Council, with specific reference to its first five years of operation. Abstracts should be submitted by Friday 29th January and the papers will be due on 19th March 2010.

Background and Objectives

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council is composed of 15 Member States (ten elected for a term of two years and five for a term of three years). The purpose of the Peace and Security Council is to provide “a collective security and early-warning arrangement to facilitate timely and efficient response to conflict and crisis situations in Africa.”1 The PSC assesses potential crisis situations; sends fact-finding missions to trouble spots and authorises and legitimises the AU’s intervention if and when necessary. Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act affirms the right of the Union to intervene in a Member State with respect to crisis situations. Specifically, Article 7(e) of the Protocol Establishing the Peace and Security Council, states that the Council can ‘recommend to the Assembly of Heads of State, intervention, on behalf of the Union, in a Member State in respect of grave circumstances, namely, war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, as defined in relevant international conventions and instruments.’2 The PSC has been operational for five years since it was inaugurated in 2004. The objective of this Expert Roundtable and Monograph will be to assess a broad range issues pertaining to the operationalisation, activities, and initiatives undertaken by the PSC. Authors are invited to submit a 250 word abstract, by Friday 29th January 2010, indicating the title of their proposed paper as well as a summary of their core research and analysis objectives. Authors are requested to concisely outline their core argument and also identify potential policy recommendations that will emerge from their analysis. Authors who are selected by the Review Committee will be required to submit their paper by 19th March 2010.

Themes

Authors and presenters can refer to any of these topics and themes when preparing their abstract and eventually their papers:

PART 1: CONCEPTUAL, INSTITUTIONAL AND OPERATIONALISATION ISSUES

1. The Genesis and Inception of the PSC: A Collective Security Regime for Africa
2. The PSC in the Context of the African Peace and Security Architecture
3. The PSC and the Continental Early Warning System
4. The PSC and the African Standby Force
5. The PSC and the Panel of the Wise
6. The PSC and the Military Staff Committee: A Case for Revitalisation
7. The PSC and its Relationship with the AU Commission
8. The PSC, Regional Economic Communities and Other Regional Organisations
9. The PSC and Civil Society: The Operationalisation of the Livingstone Formula

PART 2: CASE STUDIES OF PSC MEETINGS AND INTERVENTIONS

10. The PSC Meetings and Interventions on either of: Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Darfur, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea-Djibouti, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Somalia, South Sudan, Zimbabwe (authors can undertake comparative analysis of two or more countries)

11. A Regional Analysis of the PSC Interventions in either: the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes Region, West Africa or Southern Africa

PART 3: THE PSC AND THEMATIC ISSUES

12. The PSC and Unconstitutional Changes of Government
13. The PSC and International Justice
14. The PSC, the Responsibility to Protect and the Principle of Non-Intervention
15. The PSC and the Prevention of Genocide
16. The PSC and Pastoralists/Refugees/Internally Displaced Persons/Piracy

PART 4: THE PSC AND EXTERNAL ACTORS

17. The PSC and the United Nations Security Council
18. The PSC and the European Union
19. The PSC and NATO
20. The PSC and UN Agencies
21. The PSC and the Arab World/League/Middle East/Asia

Timetable

Authors should submit 250-word abstracts electronically in the MS Word version, by 29th January 2010, to:

Dr. Tim Murithi, [email][email protected] and copied to

Mr. Alemayehu Behabtu, [email][email protected]

Ms. Jamila El Abdellaoui, [email][email protected]

The abstracts must include the following details:

1. Title and summary of the proposed paper
2. Name of the author, their affiliation, and a brief bio-data (3-5 lines)
3. If there is more than one author, please provide the particulars of each of them

5th February 2010: Authors will be informed about the acceptance or rejection of their abstracts.

19th March 2010: Authors will have 6 weeks to finalise their papers which should be approximate 4,000 words in length and include relevant footnotes, endnotes, and a select bibliography. Authors should utilise the ISS Style Guide available on the website: www.issafrica.org

Authors will be invited to present their papers at an Expert Roundtable to be convened on Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th March 2010, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The ISS Addis Ababa Office will cover the travel and accommodation expenses of participants who are invited to the Roundtable.

Early submission of papers is strongly encouraged. A modest honorarium will be paid to authors whose papers are published after the monograph is printed.

If you have any queries regarding the submission of abstracts and papers contact Dr. Tim Murithi, Programme Head, Peace and Security Council Report Programme, [email][email protected]

Further information will be communicated to authors selected to draft papers at a later stage.