OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR DELIVERING ON THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

This 2005 monograph analyzes the African Union's (AU) efforts to implement the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) framework. While the AU has demonstrated political will through missions in Burundi (AMIB) and Darfur (AMIS), it faces severe financial, logistical, and capacity constraints. The author argues that international donors, including the G8 and EU, tend to over-emphasize military response capabilities over long-term conflict prevention. The report highlights the AU's shift toward conditional sovereignty and the development of the African Standby Force (ASF) as key components of a new continental security regime.

• The African Union's (AU) Constitutive Act is the first international treaty to formally recognize the right of an international organization to intervene in a member state's internal affairs using military force to protect populations from egregious human rights abuses, effectively treating sovereignty as conditional.
• The African Mission in Burundi (AMIB) successfully helped stabilize parts of the country and created the necessary conditions for the United Nations (UN) to deploy, though the mission faced significant resource gaps and lacked the training required to provide meaningful civilian protection.
• The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) in Darfur has been able to deter some ceasefire violations and provide limited security to civilians, but it is hindered by a weak mandate, insufficient troop numbers, and a lack of planning capacity to deploy on schedule.
• The African Standby Force (ASF) is being developed in phases, with a goal by June 2010 (Phase II) to be capable of deploying a complex peacekeeping operation within 90 days and an intervention force within 14 days.
• International donors, including the G8 and the European Union, provide critical support but often prioritize military capability and crisis response over the development of structural conflict prevention and resolution capacities in Africa.
• Canada has provided flexible funding to the AU and played a role in keeping Africa on the G8 agenda, but its contributions to AU and regional capacity building are minimal compared to its funding for NATO and the UN over the previous five years.
• African regional organizations face several systemic challenges in fulfilling peace and security mandates, including conflicting political agendas, resource constraints, and questionable legitimacy.

APA

Powell, K. (2005). OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR DELIVERING ON THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/119FULL.PDF

Chicago

Powell, Kristiana. OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR DELIVERING ON THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT. Institute for Security Studies, 2005. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/119FULL.PDF.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Powell |first1=Kristiana |title=OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR DELIVERING ON THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=May 2005 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/119FULL.PDF |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{powell2005opportunities, author = {Powell, Kristiana}, title = {{OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR DELIVERING ON THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2005}, month = may, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/119FULL.PDF}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }