ABSTRACT

The majority of crisis and development interventions in Africa are driven by a quick-fix mentality, short-term, and exit strategy-oriented. Often, there is hardly any domestic involvement or consultation, thereby neglecting the huge reservoir of domestic socio-cultural resources and traditional peace and security institutions that could be utilised to win peace and secure development. Pan-African unity and the efforts at building regional peace and security mechanisms in Africa will remain a dream or, at best, unsustainable, if the continent is not able to secure progress on economic development and democratic consolidation. The Post-Cold War debate on the role and contribution of security regionalism to the maintenance of international peace and security, would be incomplete without critical understanding of developments in Africa. Regional cohesion and the development of common political values on peace and security will potentially minimise the divisiveness that often hinders and frustrates regional peacekeeping and conflict management interventions.