The African security landscape twenty years after the creation of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union: successes, failures, challenges and achievements

The beginning of the 21st century marked the inauguration of a period of important transformations for the African continent. Since decolonization, Africa has experienced a complex process of state formation marked by political instability, economic crises, and international marginalization. After these four decades, the continent has come to occupy a space of increasing prominence in international relations. In addition to emerging as a new commercial and investment frontier, Africa also began to show significant economic growth rates and improvements in numerous social indicators, as well as consolidating its position as an important international supplier of raw materials and consumer markets, which contributed to its transformation into an object of geopolitical, economic and strategic interests on the part of traditional and emerging powers.

This process, known as the African Renaissance, had among its main pillars the transformation, in 2002, of the Organization of African Unity into the African Union (AU), an organization aimed at increasing integration and cooperation on the continent, and with substantive differences from its predecessor, especially concerning conflict management on the continent. Among the main changes was the replacement of the principle of non-interference, which was paramount for its predecessor, with that of non-indifference, as well as the quest to provide the continent with tools, previously non-existent, that would be capable of guaranteeing continental stability and security.

In this context, the AU developed a new security paradigm for the continent, embodied in the African Peace and Security Architecture, intending to increase its capacity to deal with threats and maintain peace and security on the continent. Thus, in May 2004, the AU's main decision-making body for issues relating to peace and security on the continent, the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union, came into operation. It became responsible for promoting peace, security, and stability in Africa, above all, by anticipating and preventing conflicts, carrying out actions to promote and maintain peace (peacemaking), and developing and implementing peacebuilding activities.

Since then, the body has played an important role in stabilizing the continent, among other things by authorizing AU peacekeeping operations and also by adopting sanctions against regimes established through coups d'état. Despite this, throughout this period the PSC has also faced a series of difficulties and limitations to its work, which pose challenges to the effective exercise of its powers and the full achievement of its objectives. As a result, even though the African Union is much more active than its predecessor in continental stabilization efforts, this action is still significantly limited, meaning that Africa still faces major security challenges.

It is against this backdrop, and considering the celebration of twenty years of the PSC's existence, that this edition of Conjuntura Austral invites experts, researchers, and academics to contribute with their perspectives and analyses on the African continent's security landscape in the 21st century, with special attention to the work of the African Union Peace and Security Council during this period. In this context, we hope to receive papers that propose discussions not only on the transformations of the African security landscape but also on the role of the PSC itself, reflecting on its achievements and successes, as well as its limitations and failures.

Full articles must be sent by June 21, 2024, and submitted through the journal's system, which can be accessed at this link. Papers can be written in Spanish, Portuguese, and English, and all articles will undergo a double-blind peer review process, with no fees charged by the journal. The publication guidelines and rules, as well as the submission instructions, can be found on the journal's website at this link. The selected articles are scheduled to be published in the journal's v.15, n.72 (Oct.-Dec.) issue.

Any questions or queries regarding this special issue of the journal can be sent to the journal's editorial team (conjunturaaustral@ufrgs.br) and also to the editors of the dossier, Guilherme Ziebell de Oliveira (guilherme.ziebell@ufrgs.br), Jerónimo Delgado-Caicedo (jeronimo.delgado@uexternado.edu.co), Silvia Perazzo (silviaperazzo@anu-ar.org) and Myrna Rodríguez Añuez (myrna.ranuez@correo.buap.mx).