Tag: collective security

It is evident from attempted coups d’état, contested elections, violent protests and riots, constitutional amendments to extend of terms of presidents, religious fundamentalism, terrorism, foreign interventions and other structural problems in Africa, which threaten the political equilibrium, that there are a various types of conflicts that need to be dealt with (See Institute for Security Studies, October 2017:10-21). This calls for a strengthened, enhanced and effective regional collective security arrangement. The African Union (AU) established the African Standby Force (ASF) for peacekeeping purposes as well as possible interventions when conflicts degenerate, and implement its motto of “African solutions to African problems”. This continental Force is being developed in five multi-dimensional regional brigades with military, police and civilian components but its operationalization took much longer than planned. The question is why? What are the hurdles? What needs to be done to fully operationalize it? This paper critically analyzes these issues and develops a ten-step procedure on what needs to be done to fully operationalize the ASF based on experience gained from the Eastern Africa Standby Force, one of the regional components, which declared full operational capability ahead of schedule in 2014.