Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-hgkh8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T09:51:43.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The African Union as a norm entrepreneur on military coups d’état in Africa (1952–2012): an empirical assessment*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2014

Issaka K. Souaré*
Affiliation:
Department of Peace and Security, African Union Commission, P.O. Box 200117, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Between 1952 and 2012, there were a total of 88 successful military coups in Africa. Of those, 63 occurred prior to 1990, and 10 cases since the adoption, by the defunct Organization of African Unity (OAU), of the Lomé Declaration in July 2000, banning military coups and adopting sanctions against regimes born out of this. The article shows that the African Union (AU) has followed in the footsteps of the OAU in this regard. Assisted by some African regional organisations and international partners, the combined effect of this policy of the AU – assisted by other factors – has been a significant reduction in the occurrence of this phenomenon. While not constituting a funeral arrangement for military coups in the immediate future, these developments – if they were to continue – may indeed make this eventuality achievable in the long run. But the article also reveals some challenges the AU is facing in ensuring this.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Ato Onoma, Jacques François Aylestock, Charles Mwaura, Lansana Gberie, Solomon Ayelo Dersso, Berouk Mesfin, Aissatou Hayatou, General Jean Michel Mokoko, Godefroy Barandagiye and the anonymous reviewers at JMAS for their useful comments on earlier drafts of this article. The views expressed in this article are exclusively mine, strictly expressed in my personal capacity and they do not, in any way or form, represent the official views of the African Union Commission or those of any of its officials or Member States of the AU.

References

REFERENCES

African Union (AU). 2002. Constitutive Act of the AU. Durban: AU.Google Scholar
African Union (AU). 2007. African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Addis Ababa: AU.Google Scholar
Agbese, P.O. 2004. ‘Soldiers as Rulers: Military Performance’, in Kieh, G.K. & Agbese, P.O., eds, The Military and Politics in Africa: from engagement to democratic and constitutional control. Aldershot: Ashgate, 5790.Google Scholar
Agbobli, A.K. 1992. Sylvanus Olympio: un destin tragique. Dakar: LivreSud, NEA.Google Scholar
Charlton, R. 1983. ‘Predicting African Military Coups’, Futures 15, 4: 281–92.Google Scholar
Checkel, J.T. 2012. Norm Entrepreneurship: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges. Memo prepared for a workshop on “The Evolution of International Norms and ‘Norm Entrepreneurship’: The Council of Europe in Comparative Perspective”. Oxford: Wolfson College, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Clark, J.F. 2007. ‘The decline of the African military coup’, Journal of Democracy 18, 3: 141–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, P. 2008. ‘Let Us Now Praise Coups’, The Washington Post, 22 June.Google Scholar
Collier, P. 2009. War, Guns, and Votes: democracy in dangerous places. New York, NY: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Collier, P. & Hoeffler, A.. 2005. Coup Traps: why does Africa have so many coups d'etat? Unpublished manuscript at <http://users.ox.ac.uk/∼econpco/research/pdfs/Coup-traps.pdf>, accessed: 20.7.2012.Google Scholar
Decalo, S. 1976. Coups and Army Rule in Africa. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Engel, U. 2010. ‘Unconstitutional Changes of Government – New AU Policies in Defence of Democracy’. Leipzig: Working Paper Series of the Graduate Centre for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 9.Google Scholar
Fearon, J. 1991. ‘Counterfactuals and hypothesis testing in political science’, World Politics 43, 2: 169–95.Google Scholar
Finer, S.E. 1988. The Man on Horseback: the role of the military in politics. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Finnemore, M. & Sikkink, K.. 1998. ‘International norm dynamics and political change’, International Organization 52, 4: 887917.Google Scholar
First, R. 1970. The Barrel of a Gun: political power in Africa and the coup d'etat. London: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Houngnikpo, M.C. 2010. Guarding the Guardians: civil-military relations and democratic governance in Africa. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch (HRW). 2009. Bloody Monday: the September 28 massacre and rapes by security forces in Guinea. New York, NY: HRW.Google Scholar
Ikome, F.N. 2007. Good coups and bad coups: the limits of the African Union's injunction on unconstitutional changes of power in Africa. Pretoria: Institute for Global Dialogue.Google Scholar
Janowitz, M. 1977. Military Institutions and Coercion in the Developing Countries. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, T.H., Slater, R.O. & McGowan, P. 1984. ‘Explaining African Military Coups d'Etat, 1960–1982’, American Political Science Review 78, 3: 622–40.Google Scholar
Kieh, G.K. & Agbese, P.O., eds. 2004. The Military and Politics in Africa: from engagement to democratic and constitutional control. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
McGowan, P.J. 2003. ‘African military coups d'état, 1956–2001: frequency, trends and distribution’, Journal of Modern African Studies 41, 3: 339–70.Google Scholar
McGowan, P. & Johnson, T.H.. 1984. ‘African military coups d'etat and underdevelopment: a quantitative historical analysis’, Journal of Modern African Studies 22, 4: 633–66.Google Scholar
Miller, A.C. 2011. ‘Debunking the Myth of the “Good” Coup d'Etat in Africa’, African Studies Quarterly 12, 2: 4570.Google Scholar
N'Diaye, B. 2009. ‘To ‘midwife’ – and abort – a democracy: Mauritania's transition from military rule, 2005–2008’, Journal of Modern African Studies 47, 1: 129–52.Google Scholar
N'Solé Biteghé, M. 1990. Echec aux militaires au Gabon en 1964. Dakar : Editions Chaka.Google Scholar
Onwudiwe, E. 2004. ‘Military coups in Africa: a framework for research’, in Kieh, G.K. & Agbese, P.O., eds. The Military and Politics in Africa: from engagement to democratic and constitutional control. Aldershot: Ashgate, 1736.Google Scholar
Onwumechili, C. 1998. African Democratization and Military Coups. Westport, CT. Praeger.Google Scholar
Organization of African Unity (OAU). 2000. Declaration on the Framework for an OAU Response to Unconstitutional Changes of Government. Lomé: OAU.Google Scholar
Posner, D.N. & Young, D.J.. 2007. ‘The institutionalization of political power in Africa’, Journal of Democracy 18, 3: 126–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, J.M. & Thyne, C.L.. 2011. ‘Global instances of coups from 1950 to 2010: a new dataset’, Journal of Peace Research 48, 2: 249–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siollun, M. 2009. Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's military coup culture (1966–1976). New York, NY: Algora Publishing.Google Scholar
Souaré, I.K. 2006. Civil Wars and Coups d'État in West Africa: an attempt to understand the roots and prescribe possible solutions. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Souaré, I.K. 2009 a. ‘Explaining the December 2008 Military Coup d'État in Guinea’, Conflict Trends 1: 2733.Google Scholar
Souaré, I.K. 2009 b. The AU and the Challenge of Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa. Occasional Paper, 197. Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies.Google Scholar
Souaré, I.K. 2009 c. ‘Mauritania: auto-legitimation of another coup-maker in Africa?’, ISS Today, 14 August, at <www.issafrica.org>, accessed: 20.11.2012.Google Scholar
Sturman, K. & Hayatou, A.. 2010. ‘The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: from design to reality’, in Engel, U. & Porto, J., eds. Africa's New Peace and Security Architecture: promoting norms, institutionalizing solutions. Farnham: Ashgate, 5777.Google Scholar
Thomson, W.R. 1973. Grievances of Military Coups-Makers. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
United Nations. 2009. Report of the International Commission of Inquiry Mandated to Establish the Facts and Circumstances of the Events of 28 September 2009 in Guinea. New York: UN - S/2009/693.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, B. 2012. ‘The force of action: legitimizing the coup in Bamako, Mali’, Africa Spectrum 47, 2–3: 93110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiking, S. 1983. Military Coups in Sub-Saharan Africa: how to justify illegal assumptions of power. Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.Google Scholar
Williams, P.D. 2007. ‘From non-intervention to non-indifference: the origins and development of the African Union's Security Culture’, African Affairs 106, 423: 253–79.Google Scholar
Williams, P.D. 2009. ‘The Peace and Security Council of the African Union: evaluating an embryonic international institution’, Journal of Modern African Studies 47, 4: 603–26.Google Scholar
Witt, A. 2012. ‘Jointly Working for Democracy? The African Union and unconstitutional changes of government.’ Paper prepared for the DVPW Congress, 24–28 September, Tubingen.Google Scholar