I am a post-doctoral researcher at the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Germany. I am interested in international organizations, regionalism, legitimacy and authority in the international realm, as well as every-day experiences of international politics, all with a regional focus on Subsahara Africa. In my current project I study local perspectives on African regional organizations and their involvement in political crises within their member states.
Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated c... more Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated coup d'états. Within the African Union (AU), there has been a concerted effort to break this cycle through the official adoption of an ‘anti-coup norm’, by which the AU is mandated to suspend a member state and restore constitutional order following a coup. Supporters of this stance see it as strengthening democracy in Africa, while critics argue that it has served to prop up existing regimes. But there has been little analysis of what the AU’s attempts to ‘restore constitutional order’ have meant for individual African states.
In this book, Antonia Witt looks at the legacy of the AU’s intervention in Madagascar following the 2009 ‘Malagasy crisis’, one of the increasingly relevant yet under-researched cases of non-Western intervention in Africa. The book looks at the ways in which international intervention reconfigured the political order in Madagascar, how it facilitated the power struggle within the Madagascan elite and prevented more profound political change. It also considers what the example set by the Madagascan intervention means for the wider international order in Africa and the powers attributed to African international actors such as the AU.
International organizations like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the Euro... more International organizations like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the European Union are a defining feature of contemporary world politics. In recent years, many of them have also become heavily politicized.
In this book, we examine how the norms and values that underpin the evaluations of international organizations have changed over the past 50 years. Looking at five organizations in depth, we observe two major trends. Taken together, both trends make the legitimation of international organizations more challenging today. First, people-based legitimacy standards are on the rise: international organizations are increasingly asked to demonstrate not only what they do for their member states, but also for the people living in these states. Second, procedural legitimacy standards gain ground: international organizations are increasingly evaluated not only based on what they accomplish, but also based on how they arrive at decisions, manage themselves, or coordinate with other organizations in the field. In sum, the study thus documents how the list of expectations international organizations need to fulfil to count as 'legitimate' has expanded over time. The sources of this expansion are manifold. Among others, they include the politicization of expanded international authority and the rise of non-state actors as new audiences from which international organizations seek legitimacy.
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2020
International Relations (IR) has long been criticised for taking a particular (Western) experienc... more International Relations (IR) has long been criticised for taking a particular (Western) experience as basis for formulating theories with claim to universal validity. ‘Non-Western’, ‘post-Western’, and postcolonial theories have been criticising the problem of Western parochialism and have developed specific strategies of changing IR. Global IR has taken up some of these concerns and aims at changing the discipline by theorising international politics as multiplex, taking different experiences, histories, and agencies into account. Yet, we argue that this agenda rests on a partial reading of IR’s critics, failing to take seriously the epistemological and methodological critiques of IR and therefore perpetuating some of the discipline’s ‘globalisms’. Therefore, first, Global IR reifies the idea of a truly universal body of knowledge. The global is logically prior to this as an imagined space of politics and knowledge. Second, Global IR assumes that scholars around the world aspire and are able to contribute to a single body of knowledge. While reifying these globalisms, Global IR fails to ask where this global imaginary comes from and what its effects are on the distribution of power and wealth. We argue that instead of assuming ‘the global’ as descriptive category, a more substantial and reflexive critique of IR’s exclusionary biases should start from reconstructing these globalisms and their effects.
Scholars increasingly investigate how the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is conte... more Scholars increasingly investigate how the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is contested and negotiated in practice. Yet little knowledge exists on the politics African regional interventions provoke in the societies affected by such interventions. Based on an analysis of media reports from Burkina Faso and The Gambia, we show that regional interventions are indeed contested locally, irrespective of the means of intervention applied. Our analysis demonstrates how local elites use regional norms and policies in order to claim power and define what is going (wr)on(g). With this, we provide evidence for the (contested) local effects of APSA and for the relevance of media for researching such effects.
Twelve years after the adoption of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, sc... more Twelve years after the adoption of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, scholars and policymakers are still pondering whether the regional document has had any actual effect. Based on case studies from Madagascar and Burkina Faso, this article demonstrates the Charter's impact on political dynamics within both countries. By analysing contestations around the application of Article 25(4), which defines who is eligible to run in transitional elections, I show that various national and international actors (attempt to) use the Charter as a legal script to limit access to state power and restrict the electorate's voting choices. That these attempts are highly contentious is evidence of the Charter's effect. If it were seen as irrelevant, nobody would bother to contest it. I therefore suggest studying the effects of the Charter from a different analytical angle-that is, "bottom-up"-by focusing on the settings and places in which it is actually applied.
South African Journal of International Affairs, 2018
This article argues for a shift in researching African interventions: from a top-down study of Af... more This article argues for a shift in researching African interventions: from a top-down study of African regional norms and institutions towards a view ‘from below’ on the actual practices of intervention and how they play out on the ground. Such a view is important in order to understand the contested politics of African interventions as well as disconnects between grand regional architectures and their imprints on the ground. In doing so, this article also seeks to link research on African interventions to the academic debate on peacebuilding and peacemaking interventions more generally. While this literature has increasingly taken the ‘local’ into account, such a localisation in terms of researching African interventions has yet to take place. This article suggests three dimensions in which a view ‘from below’ could be translated into the research agenda on African interventions.
This article explores former president Chissano’s mediation in Madagascar after the 2009 coup. It... more This article explores former president Chissano’s mediation in Madagascar after the 2009 coup. It shows that there are inherent tensions in mediating the re-establishment of constitutional order in the context of the African Union’s anti-coup policy. While espousing the ideal of mediation as an inclusive and locally owned process, Chissano’s mandate contradicted both the realities on the ground and the AU policy. The article analyzes the norms and principles inscribed in this mandate and their ambiguous translation into practice. The analysis offers inroads into understanding the normative and practical dilemmas of mediation in the context of unconstitutional changes of government.
Over the past decade, numerous international actors have developed policy frameworks to address a... more Over the past decade, numerous international actors have developed policy frameworks to address and ultimately prevent the resurgence of coups d'état in Africa. By reconstructing international reactions to the coups in Guinea and Madagascar, this article analyzes whether this trend has also engendered a convergence in practice. This, it argues, involves a struggle over defining the terms of such interventions, first with regard to how to re-build legitimate political orders and second in relation to the definition of roles and hierarchies that emanate from multiple and sometimes conflicting mandates to address such situations. Furthermore, while convergence is understood as generally ambiguous in its consequences, this article suggests that even successful convergence in practice comes with fundamental costs that can compromise the preventive aims of such interventions.
In defending and enforcing continental and sub-regional norms, African regional organizations are... more In defending and enforcing continental and sub-regional norms, African regional organizations are increasingly present in their member states. This holds particularly true for the area of peace and security, in which the norms and instruments of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) have been regularly applied across the continent. However, despite this presence on the ground, how people and groups living in countries affected by the policies and interventions of African regional organizations experience and evaluate such endeavors has so far been largely ignored in the scholarly debate about African regional organizations. In order to address this lacuna, this working paper presents a methodological agenda for studying societal perspectives on African regional interventions. In so doing, I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of three different methodological approaches – media analysis, survey research, and focus group/interview research – and show how each of these approaches sheds new light on societal consequences of and reactions to African interventions. With this discussion, I demonstrate the methodological feasibility and value-added of studying societal perspectives on African interventions. I also show that the choice of method is not only a matter of available resources and skills, but has a crucial impact on what kind of society and societal perspectives are made visible.
In 2007, African Heads of State and Government adopted the African Charter on Democracy, Election... more In 2007, African Heads of State and Government adopted the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. This regional instrument was supposed to “promote the universal values and principles of democracy.” Yet has it had such an effect? With this PRIF Spotlight I shed light on two country cases – Madagascar and Burkina Faso – in which the Charter was (not) used by civil society organizations in their struggle for better democratic governance. If the Charter is to become an effective instrument in the hands of civil society in the future, the African Union will have to invest more in its popularization and active promotion.
Security dynamics in the Horn of Africa are shaped by states' shared interest in having a peacefu... more Security dynamics in the Horn of Africa are shaped by states' shared interest in having a peaceful region, on one hand, and competition between them, on the other. This year's FES conference on peace and security in the Horn of Africa, however, stressed that the debate needs to move beyond a binary distinction between national and regional interests. It highlighted that the dynamics between the region's various security actors, as well as the ambiguous consequences of regional security, merit more attention. • Although the initiative to deepen the policy dialogue on regional security cooperation was welcomed, the conference revealed that there are still crucial lines of division. These can be clustered along three questions: (i) which understanding of security and security actors should guide the debate?; (ii) who will define the regional peace and security agenda?; and (iii) to what extent and for what purpose should regional security policy become institutionalised in existing regional organisations? • The discussion of the conflicts in South Sudan and Somalia in particular highlighted these divisive lines. South Sudan has seen competing regional peacemakers (IGAD, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania) and competing strategies (military versus political). Somalia still poses the problem of uniting the region's protagonists under AMISOM and moving beyond a military strategy. Both cases underlined that the region's states have ambiguous approaches towards IGAD, which remains under-resourced and prone to competition among its most powerful members. Moreover, the current practice of ad hoc, state-driven security policies may at times be in contradiction with the interests of national elites as well as with those of the local population. • Finally, the conference disclosed a need for further dialogue on how to redefine the region in more positive terms. Rather than thinking of the region only as a product of national policies, this could lead to a more positive definition of a vision for the region in its own right. Such a dialogue could start from a reflection on the region's positive lessons or from the potentials that emanate from deepened economic integration.
Auf dem Valletta-Gipfel Ende 2015 trafen sich Vertreterinnen und Vertreter europäischer und afrik... more Auf dem Valletta-Gipfel Ende 2015 trafen sich Vertreterinnen und Vertreter europäischer und afrikanischer Staaten, um gemeinsame Strategien zu den Themen Flucht und Migration zu entwickeln. Auslöser war die „Flüchtlingskrise“, die die EU vor eine Zerreißprobe stellt. Eine engere Partnerschaft zwischen EU und den Staaten der Afrikanischen Union schien, zumindest aus europäischer Perspektive, ein wirkungsvolles Instrument zu sein. Im Laufe der Konferenz zeigte sich jedoch der tiefe Graben zwischen den Wünschen und Zielen der beiden Lager. Trotzdem gelang es, einen gemeinsamen Aktionsplan zu verabschieden. Die europäische Seite gibt sich optimistisch und wertet ihn als Erfolg. Zu Recht? Antonia Witt und Lydia Both entwirren in ihrem Beitrag die verschiedenen Standpunkte und Problemwahrnehmungen auf europäischer und auf afrikanischer Seite. Sie veranschaulichen, wie unterschiedlich mit den Themen Migration und Flucht umgegangen wird und nehmen die Beschlüsse unter die Lupe. Deutlich wird, wie zweischneidig viele Lösungsversuche sind, beheben sie doch unter Umständen ein Problem und produzieren gleichzeitig zwei neue. Eine schnelle Abnahme von Flucht- und Migrationsbewegungen ist angesichts der komplexen Problemlage kaum zu erwarten. Wertet man diesen Aktionsplan allerdings als Anfang eines gemeinsamen Arbeits- und Denkprozesses, der in Zukunft auch Betroffene stärker einbezieht, könnte er doch der Anstoß sein, die bisherigen afrikanischen und europäischen Monologe konstruktiv zusammenzuführen.
In August 2018, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) met in order to review t... more In August 2018, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) met in order to review the organization’s main legal instrument for the promotion and defense of democratic governance in Africa: the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance, in short: the AU Charter. Eleven years after its adoption in 2007 and six years after it entered into force in 2012, it was time to ask whether the Charter had made any difference. Yet when assessing the Charter’s effects, policy-makers and analysts too often focus on numbers of ratifications, or the extent to which African states have translated the Charter’s provisions into national law. In this PRIF Spotlight I apply a more micro-perspective and shed light on two instances of political crises – Madagascar in 2009 and Burkina Faso in 2014 – in which the Charter could have been used by national civil society in the struggle for better democratic governance. Such reflections on the everyday use of the AU Charter are rare – yet they provide important knowledge about whether and for whom the Charter can actually make a difference and what policy-makers should do about it. My insights are based on field research and interviews conducted in both countries in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
Die weltweite Ausbreitung der Corona-Pandemie und die damit verbundenen restriktiven Maßnahmen ge... more Die weltweite Ausbreitung der Corona-Pandemie und die damit verbundenen restriktiven Maßnahmen gefährden all jene Forschung, für die menschliche Interaktion und Präsenz ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Wissensproduktion ist. Anhand unserer eigenen Erfahrungen mit einer abgebrochenen Feldforschung in Burkina Faso diskutieren wir, wie in der aktuellen Krise das Forschen selbst zur Krisenpraxis wird und welche Konsequenzen geschlossene „Felder“ und Unplanbarkeiten in Zeiten von Corona für die (Feld-)Forschungspraxis der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung haben.
Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated c... more Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated coup d'états. Within the African Union (AU), there has been a concerted effort to break this cycle through the official adoption of an ‘anti-coup norm’, by which the AU is mandated to suspend a member state and restore constitutional order following a coup. Supporters of this stance see it as strengthening democracy in Africa, while critics argue that it has served to prop up existing regimes. But there has been little analysis of what the AU’s attempts to ‘restore constitutional order’ have meant for individual African states.
In this book, Antonia Witt looks at the legacy of the AU’s intervention in Madagascar following the 2009 ‘Malagasy crisis’, one of the increasingly relevant yet under-researched cases of non-Western intervention in Africa. The book looks at the ways in which international intervention reconfigured the political order in Madagascar, how it facilitated the power struggle within the Madagascan elite and prevented more profound political change. It also considers what the example set by the Madagascan intervention means for the wider international order in Africa and the powers attributed to African international actors such as the AU.
International organizations like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the Euro... more International organizations like the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, or the European Union are a defining feature of contemporary world politics. In recent years, many of them have also become heavily politicized.
In this book, we examine how the norms and values that underpin the evaluations of international organizations have changed over the past 50 years. Looking at five organizations in depth, we observe two major trends. Taken together, both trends make the legitimation of international organizations more challenging today. First, people-based legitimacy standards are on the rise: international organizations are increasingly asked to demonstrate not only what they do for their member states, but also for the people living in these states. Second, procedural legitimacy standards gain ground: international organizations are increasingly evaluated not only based on what they accomplish, but also based on how they arrive at decisions, manage themselves, or coordinate with other organizations in the field. In sum, the study thus documents how the list of expectations international organizations need to fulfil to count as 'legitimate' has expanded over time. The sources of this expansion are manifold. Among others, they include the politicization of expanded international authority and the rise of non-state actors as new audiences from which international organizations seek legitimacy.
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2020
International Relations (IR) has long been criticised for taking a particular (Western) experienc... more International Relations (IR) has long been criticised for taking a particular (Western) experience as basis for formulating theories with claim to universal validity. ‘Non-Western’, ‘post-Western’, and postcolonial theories have been criticising the problem of Western parochialism and have developed specific strategies of changing IR. Global IR has taken up some of these concerns and aims at changing the discipline by theorising international politics as multiplex, taking different experiences, histories, and agencies into account. Yet, we argue that this agenda rests on a partial reading of IR’s critics, failing to take seriously the epistemological and methodological critiques of IR and therefore perpetuating some of the discipline’s ‘globalisms’. Therefore, first, Global IR reifies the idea of a truly universal body of knowledge. The global is logically prior to this as an imagined space of politics and knowledge. Second, Global IR assumes that scholars around the world aspire and are able to contribute to a single body of knowledge. While reifying these globalisms, Global IR fails to ask where this global imaginary comes from and what its effects are on the distribution of power and wealth. We argue that instead of assuming ‘the global’ as descriptive category, a more substantial and reflexive critique of IR’s exclusionary biases should start from reconstructing these globalisms and their effects.
Scholars increasingly investigate how the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is conte... more Scholars increasingly investigate how the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) is contested and negotiated in practice. Yet little knowledge exists on the politics African regional interventions provoke in the societies affected by such interventions. Based on an analysis of media reports from Burkina Faso and The Gambia, we show that regional interventions are indeed contested locally, irrespective of the means of intervention applied. Our analysis demonstrates how local elites use regional norms and policies in order to claim power and define what is going (wr)on(g). With this, we provide evidence for the (contested) local effects of APSA and for the relevance of media for researching such effects.
Twelve years after the adoption of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, sc... more Twelve years after the adoption of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, scholars and policymakers are still pondering whether the regional document has had any actual effect. Based on case studies from Madagascar and Burkina Faso, this article demonstrates the Charter's impact on political dynamics within both countries. By analysing contestations around the application of Article 25(4), which defines who is eligible to run in transitional elections, I show that various national and international actors (attempt to) use the Charter as a legal script to limit access to state power and restrict the electorate's voting choices. That these attempts are highly contentious is evidence of the Charter's effect. If it were seen as irrelevant, nobody would bother to contest it. I therefore suggest studying the effects of the Charter from a different analytical angle-that is, "bottom-up"-by focusing on the settings and places in which it is actually applied.
South African Journal of International Affairs, 2018
This article argues for a shift in researching African interventions: from a top-down study of Af... more This article argues for a shift in researching African interventions: from a top-down study of African regional norms and institutions towards a view ‘from below’ on the actual practices of intervention and how they play out on the ground. Such a view is important in order to understand the contested politics of African interventions as well as disconnects between grand regional architectures and their imprints on the ground. In doing so, this article also seeks to link research on African interventions to the academic debate on peacebuilding and peacemaking interventions more generally. While this literature has increasingly taken the ‘local’ into account, such a localisation in terms of researching African interventions has yet to take place. This article suggests three dimensions in which a view ‘from below’ could be translated into the research agenda on African interventions.
This article explores former president Chissano’s mediation in Madagascar after the 2009 coup. It... more This article explores former president Chissano’s mediation in Madagascar after the 2009 coup. It shows that there are inherent tensions in mediating the re-establishment of constitutional order in the context of the African Union’s anti-coup policy. While espousing the ideal of mediation as an inclusive and locally owned process, Chissano’s mandate contradicted both the realities on the ground and the AU policy. The article analyzes the norms and principles inscribed in this mandate and their ambiguous translation into practice. The analysis offers inroads into understanding the normative and practical dilemmas of mediation in the context of unconstitutional changes of government.
Over the past decade, numerous international actors have developed policy frameworks to address a... more Over the past decade, numerous international actors have developed policy frameworks to address and ultimately prevent the resurgence of coups d'état in Africa. By reconstructing international reactions to the coups in Guinea and Madagascar, this article analyzes whether this trend has also engendered a convergence in practice. This, it argues, involves a struggle over defining the terms of such interventions, first with regard to how to re-build legitimate political orders and second in relation to the definition of roles and hierarchies that emanate from multiple and sometimes conflicting mandates to address such situations. Furthermore, while convergence is understood as generally ambiguous in its consequences, this article suggests that even successful convergence in practice comes with fundamental costs that can compromise the preventive aims of such interventions.
In defending and enforcing continental and sub-regional norms, African regional organizations are... more In defending and enforcing continental and sub-regional norms, African regional organizations are increasingly present in their member states. This holds particularly true for the area of peace and security, in which the norms and instruments of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) have been regularly applied across the continent. However, despite this presence on the ground, how people and groups living in countries affected by the policies and interventions of African regional organizations experience and evaluate such endeavors has so far been largely ignored in the scholarly debate about African regional organizations. In order to address this lacuna, this working paper presents a methodological agenda for studying societal perspectives on African regional interventions. In so doing, I discuss the strengths and weaknesses of three different methodological approaches – media analysis, survey research, and focus group/interview research – and show how each of these approaches sheds new light on societal consequences of and reactions to African interventions. With this discussion, I demonstrate the methodological feasibility and value-added of studying societal perspectives on African interventions. I also show that the choice of method is not only a matter of available resources and skills, but has a crucial impact on what kind of society and societal perspectives are made visible.
In 2007, African Heads of State and Government adopted the African Charter on Democracy, Election... more In 2007, African Heads of State and Government adopted the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. This regional instrument was supposed to “promote the universal values and principles of democracy.” Yet has it had such an effect? With this PRIF Spotlight I shed light on two country cases – Madagascar and Burkina Faso – in which the Charter was (not) used by civil society organizations in their struggle for better democratic governance. If the Charter is to become an effective instrument in the hands of civil society in the future, the African Union will have to invest more in its popularization and active promotion.
Security dynamics in the Horn of Africa are shaped by states' shared interest in having a peacefu... more Security dynamics in the Horn of Africa are shaped by states' shared interest in having a peaceful region, on one hand, and competition between them, on the other. This year's FES conference on peace and security in the Horn of Africa, however, stressed that the debate needs to move beyond a binary distinction between national and regional interests. It highlighted that the dynamics between the region's various security actors, as well as the ambiguous consequences of regional security, merit more attention. • Although the initiative to deepen the policy dialogue on regional security cooperation was welcomed, the conference revealed that there are still crucial lines of division. These can be clustered along three questions: (i) which understanding of security and security actors should guide the debate?; (ii) who will define the regional peace and security agenda?; and (iii) to what extent and for what purpose should regional security policy become institutionalised in existing regional organisations? • The discussion of the conflicts in South Sudan and Somalia in particular highlighted these divisive lines. South Sudan has seen competing regional peacemakers (IGAD, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania) and competing strategies (military versus political). Somalia still poses the problem of uniting the region's protagonists under AMISOM and moving beyond a military strategy. Both cases underlined that the region's states have ambiguous approaches towards IGAD, which remains under-resourced and prone to competition among its most powerful members. Moreover, the current practice of ad hoc, state-driven security policies may at times be in contradiction with the interests of national elites as well as with those of the local population. • Finally, the conference disclosed a need for further dialogue on how to redefine the region in more positive terms. Rather than thinking of the region only as a product of national policies, this could lead to a more positive definition of a vision for the region in its own right. Such a dialogue could start from a reflection on the region's positive lessons or from the potentials that emanate from deepened economic integration.
Auf dem Valletta-Gipfel Ende 2015 trafen sich Vertreterinnen und Vertreter europäischer und afrik... more Auf dem Valletta-Gipfel Ende 2015 trafen sich Vertreterinnen und Vertreter europäischer und afrikanischer Staaten, um gemeinsame Strategien zu den Themen Flucht und Migration zu entwickeln. Auslöser war die „Flüchtlingskrise“, die die EU vor eine Zerreißprobe stellt. Eine engere Partnerschaft zwischen EU und den Staaten der Afrikanischen Union schien, zumindest aus europäischer Perspektive, ein wirkungsvolles Instrument zu sein. Im Laufe der Konferenz zeigte sich jedoch der tiefe Graben zwischen den Wünschen und Zielen der beiden Lager. Trotzdem gelang es, einen gemeinsamen Aktionsplan zu verabschieden. Die europäische Seite gibt sich optimistisch und wertet ihn als Erfolg. Zu Recht? Antonia Witt und Lydia Both entwirren in ihrem Beitrag die verschiedenen Standpunkte und Problemwahrnehmungen auf europäischer und auf afrikanischer Seite. Sie veranschaulichen, wie unterschiedlich mit den Themen Migration und Flucht umgegangen wird und nehmen die Beschlüsse unter die Lupe. Deutlich wird, wie zweischneidig viele Lösungsversuche sind, beheben sie doch unter Umständen ein Problem und produzieren gleichzeitig zwei neue. Eine schnelle Abnahme von Flucht- und Migrationsbewegungen ist angesichts der komplexen Problemlage kaum zu erwarten. Wertet man diesen Aktionsplan allerdings als Anfang eines gemeinsamen Arbeits- und Denkprozesses, der in Zukunft auch Betroffene stärker einbezieht, könnte er doch der Anstoß sein, die bisherigen afrikanischen und europäischen Monologe konstruktiv zusammenzuführen.
In August 2018, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) met in order to review t... more In August 2018, the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) met in order to review the organization’s main legal instrument for the promotion and defense of democratic governance in Africa: the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance, in short: the AU Charter. Eleven years after its adoption in 2007 and six years after it entered into force in 2012, it was time to ask whether the Charter had made any difference. Yet when assessing the Charter’s effects, policy-makers and analysts too often focus on numbers of ratifications, or the extent to which African states have translated the Charter’s provisions into national law. In this PRIF Spotlight I apply a more micro-perspective and shed light on two instances of political crises – Madagascar in 2009 and Burkina Faso in 2014 – in which the Charter could have been used by national civil society in the struggle for better democratic governance. Such reflections on the everyday use of the AU Charter are rare – yet they provide important knowledge about whether and for whom the Charter can actually make a difference and what policy-makers should do about it. My insights are based on field research and interviews conducted in both countries in 2014 and 2017, respectively.
Die weltweite Ausbreitung der Corona-Pandemie und die damit verbundenen restriktiven Maßnahmen ge... more Die weltweite Ausbreitung der Corona-Pandemie und die damit verbundenen restriktiven Maßnahmen gefährden all jene Forschung, für die menschliche Interaktion und Präsenz ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Wissensproduktion ist. Anhand unserer eigenen Erfahrungen mit einer abgebrochenen Feldforschung in Burkina Faso diskutieren wir, wie in der aktuellen Krise das Forschen selbst zur Krisenpraxis wird und welche Konsequenzen geschlossene „Felder“ und Unplanbarkeiten in Zeiten von Corona für die (Feld-)Forschungspraxis der Friedens- und Konfliktforschung haben.
Although corona is a global health threat, immediate reactions to contain its spread have mainly ... more Although corona is a global health threat, immediate reactions to contain its spread have mainly followed a logic of national sovereignty, threatening many of the hard-won achievements of decades of international cooperation. In this situation, the African Union (AU) is a rare case of internationalism: it has played an important role in providing coordination, expertise and technical support to its member states, engaging in advocacy, and mobilizing resources. It is imperative to applaud, but more so to support the AU in continuing to play its vital role as one of the few islands of internationalism these days.
Uploads
In this book, Antonia Witt looks at the legacy of the AU’s intervention in Madagascar following the 2009 ‘Malagasy crisis’, one of the increasingly relevant yet under-researched cases of non-Western intervention in Africa. The book looks at the ways in which international intervention reconfigured the political order in Madagascar, how it facilitated the power struggle within the Madagascan elite and prevented more profound political change. It also considers what the example set by the Madagascan intervention means for the wider international order in Africa and the powers attributed to African international actors such as the AU.
In this book, we examine how the norms and values that underpin the evaluations of international organizations have changed over the past 50 years. Looking at five organizations in depth, we observe two major trends. Taken together, both trends make the legitimation of international organizations more challenging today. First, people-based legitimacy standards are on the rise: international organizations are increasingly asked to demonstrate not only what they do for their member states, but also for the people living in these states. Second, procedural legitimacy standards gain ground: international organizations are increasingly evaluated not only based on what they accomplish, but also based on how they arrive at decisions, manage themselves, or coordinate with other organizations in the field. In sum, the study thus documents how the list of expectations international organizations need to fulfil to count as 'legitimate' has expanded over time. The sources of this expansion are manifold. Among others, they include the politicization of expanded international authority and the rise of non-state actors as new audiences from which international organizations seek legitimacy.
In this book, Antonia Witt looks at the legacy of the AU’s intervention in Madagascar following the 2009 ‘Malagasy crisis’, one of the increasingly relevant yet under-researched cases of non-Western intervention in Africa. The book looks at the ways in which international intervention reconfigured the political order in Madagascar, how it facilitated the power struggle within the Madagascan elite and prevented more profound political change. It also considers what the example set by the Madagascan intervention means for the wider international order in Africa and the powers attributed to African international actors such as the AU.
In this book, we examine how the norms and values that underpin the evaluations of international organizations have changed over the past 50 years. Looking at five organizations in depth, we observe two major trends. Taken together, both trends make the legitimation of international organizations more challenging today. First, people-based legitimacy standards are on the rise: international organizations are increasingly asked to demonstrate not only what they do for their member states, but also for the people living in these states. Second, procedural legitimacy standards gain ground: international organizations are increasingly evaluated not only based on what they accomplish, but also based on how they arrive at decisions, manage themselves, or coordinate with other organizations in the field. In sum, the study thus documents how the list of expectations international organizations need to fulfil to count as 'legitimate' has expanded over time. The sources of this expansion are manifold. Among others, they include the politicization of expanded international authority and the rise of non-state actors as new audiences from which international organizations seek legitimacy.