Description
When discussing international peacekeeping, Africa has long been seen as a ‘beneficiary’ of peace operations led by the Global North institutions. As a result, our understanding of African agency in peacekeeping remains limited. Addressing this gap in knowledge, my paper investigates how agency is practiced in African peacekeeping, focusing on the case of the African Union (AU). Based on a qualitative discourse analysis of AU Peace and Security Council documents and AU Commission staff interviews, I find that the AU, as a regional peacekeeping agent, frames and communicates its ‘African’ identity in a strategic manner. This can be seen especially in the institution’s presentation of its peacemaking doctrine that invokes Pan-African solidarity and the assertion of African ownership against global, often Western-led, peacekeeping actors including the United Nations (UN). At the same time, the AU discourse embodies the identity of an international organisation, appealing to collective security and multilateral peacekeeping. In aligning its practices with ‘global’ norms, the AU also highlights its adherence to the UN standards as well as its global-level contribution beyond the African continent. Building on these findings, the paper argues that African peacekeeping involves a strategic navigation between a dual identity – African and global – the presentation of which allows us to understand the nuanced practices of agency. By doing so, the paper offers much-needed insights into African agency in international peacekeeping and suggests a new agent-focused framework for future studies of African multilateral actors, such as the regional economic communities, in addition to the AU.
