Though it took over two months, the Assembly decisions of the African Union Annual Summit 2023 are finally available. The long scrubbing process is nothing new, but it lasted particularly long this year – 1/6th of the time until the next summit has already passed. The 2023 Summit is yet another reality check for the…

Contribution to a special issue “AU@20: Looking Back and Thinking Forward on the Impact of the African Union on Deepening Continental Integration in Africa”, Southern African Public Law, edited by Nciko wa Nciko & Babatunde Fagbayibo Money makes the world go round. The African Union (AU) is no exception to this rule, and in its…

The EU’s new security strategy, the Strategic Compass, aims to expedite security and defence cooperation in Europe. To do so, it embraces a variable geometry of cooperation and a pragmatic approach to institutional overlap. But can the EU deliver on these ambitious goals? Connected to broader debates on multilateral decision-making, modalities of international cooperation, and…

The African Union (AU) continued to grapple with implementing its important and difficult reforms also during the past year. While there is very welcome progress in particular in terms of decreasing arrears with assessed contributions, many reform projects face significant obstacles. Below, I summarize the Assembly and Executive Council decisions from January/February 2022 on AU…

Policy brief written for the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung’s rollout of the APSA 2040 scenario report on the future of the African Peace and Security Architecture. For two decades already, the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) has guided African and external stakeholders engagement for peace and security in Africa. Over time, a double crisis of…