The AU: the Good,the Bad,and the Unpleasant

In Search of the AU’s Moral Foundations

The design of the African Union, and the rapidity with which it was set up, reflect the tremendous urge of Africans and the commitment of Africa’s leaders. It is an amazing accomplishment. There has always been a tremendous urge towards unity in Africa. As some say, unity is a faith in Africa, ingrained in popular mythology. Partly due to the presence of a popular impulse towards unification, the architects of the AU have sought a blueprint inspired by the strongest, ambitious, and most effective model of regional identification that exists to date, namely the European Union/EU/.Africa probably had several models to follow, but it chose the EU. As a result, the AU adopted and developed a modern system of collective security architecture with complex structures, fancy ideas, embedded in up to date human security principles, values, and norms. In this regard, Africa has no more poverty of ideas. But it lacks real capacity. This raises uncomfortable questions.

Emulating the EU is to be commended, but do the architects of the AU really believe in the factors that led to Europe’s success in the first place? A substantial part of the political motivation that led to the EU was, interalia, to guard against the excesses of totalitarianism. Do African leaders have a similar urge and motivation? The catch is that, while resembling the EU on paper, the AU or its leaders are politically sympathetic to the ASEAN model. A major set of challenge thus arises in the field of the rule of law and democracy, and the extent to which regional instruments are justifiable and dependable mechanisms. The weakness of the democratic component in the complex mechanisms and process across the continent is visible. Many African governments that formed the AU and regional organizations are not ready to support regional institutions and processes concerned with active civil society role, good governance and the democratic governance of the security sector. The AU project remains largely based on governments whose immediate priority is to preserve their national sovereignty, not to pool it.

The fundamental problem of the African Union, however, is neither lack of ideas nor lack of resources and absence of institutions or shortage of legitimacy. It is weakness. Africa’s regional organizations can’t deliver. They are weak and inefficient. Probably they need a perfect bureaucrat who can stir the work force and get things done. Most importantly, the AU needs a leader that can create coherence and synergy among the different regional organizations and processes. These are important issues that warrant careful attention. As a site concerned with regional affairs our area of focus include Africa’s regional organizations, strength and weaknesses as well as how they interface with the African people and external actors. To this effect the currentanalyst.com presents the paper by the African Research Center in London ‘on Going Public: How Africa’s Integration Can Work for the poor’, as it touches upon some of the moral underpinnings of the AU.