Regional Organizations and African Security: Moving the Debate Forward

This special volume addressed four issues concerning African Security (1) what are the advantages and disadvanta ges of African regional and sub-regional organizations vis-à-vis other security mech anisms, in particular UN peace operations?; (2) what are the official and unofficial reas ons to intervene?; and (3) whose security is actually protected by the pe ace activities carried out by the regional organizations? The authors share some common conclusions. The relationship between regional agen- cies and multilateral agencies (including th at between international and African orga- nizations) is in flux, however in Africa the former are growin g in importance. The reasons for intervening are often ambiguous, although likely to have both narrow national self interests and humanitarian catalysts. Less ambiguous, is the conclusion that Africa’s regional and sub-regional se curity organizations have been more about “sovereign boosting” than ab out the “responsibility to pr otect.” Finally, by addressing the three questions above, we contribute to the larger debate in international relations and security studies on what we mean by se curity and how we define security Africa.