Introduction: the African Union, Pan-Africanism, and the liberal world (dis)order

Abrahamsen, R., Chimhandamba, B. and Chipato, F. (2023) Introduction: the African Union, Pan-Africanism, and the liberal world (dis)order. Global Studies Quarterly, 3(3), ksad044. (doi: 10.1093/isagsq/ksad044)

Abstract

Long considered peripheral to both international affairs and the discipline of international relations (IR), Africa is increasingly at the center of global politics and academic debates. Global powers are competing for economic, political, and strategic influence on the continent, while Africa itself has emerged as an increasingly powerful and confident actor on the world stage. In large part, this is due to the leadership of the African Union (AU), which since its founding twenty years ago has embarked on an ambitious agenda inspired by Pan-Africanism, seeking to create an Africa that is a “Strong, United, and Influential Global Player.” Following the AU’s twentieth anniversary, this article and Special Forum situate the AU within recent debates in IR about non-Western agency and the contributions of the global South to world politics. Focusing on the role of the AU and Pan-African ideology in shaping Africa and its international engagements, we argue that an analysis of the AU and the influence of Pan-Africanism is crucial to an understanding of Africa’s actions and positions in contemporary world affairs. We conclude that the heightened geopolitical rivalry following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to undermine two key aspects of the AU’s Pan-Africanism, namely its commitment to democracy and human rights and its ambition to speak with a united voice on the world stage.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The research for this article and the convening of the Special Forum were made possible by generous funding from the Alex Trebek Forum for Dialogue at the University of Ottawa and from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), grant #611-2021-0196 "The African Union at 20: Pan-African Pasts and Futures".
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Chipato, Dr Farai
• Authors: Abrahamsen, R., Chimhandamba, B., and Chipato, F.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Global Studies Quarterly
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 2634-3797
• ISSN (Online): 2634-3797
• Published Online: 19 September 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © The Author(s) (2023)
• First Published: First published in Global Studies Quarterly 3(3):ksad044
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons license