The Common African Defence and Security Policy

The literature on Africa’s collective security arrangements focuses on the African Union’s Peace and Security Council and the Central Organ of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) before it. This article shows that the Peace and Security Council is only an implementation mechanism of a broader policy framework, the Common African Defence and Security Policy (CADSP), that was adopted recently in Sirte, Libya. The article argues that the adoption of such a broader collective security policy framework was made possible by changes within the international system. These changes brought about a shift from realism to idealism in various regions of the world. In Africa, the idealistic undercurrent found expression in renewed interest in African institutions and African solutions to African problems. The article also demonstrates that the CADSP will confront many challenges ranging from general theoretical and normative questions that bedevil collective security arrangements elsewhere to specific issues such as funding and other practical implementation matters.