Changing Concepts and Methods of Confl ict Management in Africa: The Responsibility to Protect and the African Standby Force

Abstract

The current security debate centres on state
security vs human security, and explores
the imperative to intervene on humanitarian
grounds, despite international norms on confl ict
intervention and state sovereignty. Rhetoric
was replaced with action via the Responsibility
to Protect report, which revised the concept
of sovereignty and framed it as the state's
responsibility to protect its citizens, but also
reoriented the security debate on the African
continent from a principle of ‘non-interference'
to one of ‘non-indifference'. Concurrently, the
AU's Peace and Security Council approved
the development of an independent African
Standby Force to react rapidly to confl ict in
Africa. This article argues that the principles
of The Responsibility to Protect document,
in combination with the developing African
Standby Force, have the potential to effectively
address the present security concerns in Africa.

African Insight Vol. 36 (3&4) 2006: pp. 26-40