Journal of African Union Studies (JoAUS)

Journal of African Union Studies (JoAUS) special issue on
Reasserting African Solutions to African Problems:
The African Union’s Difficult Decade Ahead

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The African Union (AU) celebrated its tenth year of existence in 2012. Having achieved some success in certain areas, the AU’s agenda for the next decade would require far more focus and determination if it wants to achieve its numerous objectives. The AU is also entering a new era in the wake of the Arab Spring on the continent and with the election of the new chairperson of the AU Commission. With this, the AU is set for some continuities and change. Despite laudable advances during its first decade, the AU has experienced difficulties in some instances to uphold its right and duty to devise ‘African Solutions to African Problems’. This significantly undermined the AU’s stature on the continent and in the broader international community and places considerable pressure on the continental body in the next decade. It is against this background, as well as in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the AU’s predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), that the Journal of African Union Studies (JoAUS) plans to publish a special issue analysing the AU’s achievements in successfully promoting ‘African Solutions to African Problems’ in critical areas and the prognosis for other areas of concern where the continental body had faltered to assert its primacy in continental affairs.
For this purpose, the editor, Gerrie Swart, and the managing editor, Sadiki Koko, of the JoAUS, call for papers focusing on the following broad areas with an emphasis on the overall theme of the issue, namely the:
• Election of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the chairperson of the AU Commission;
• AU’s peace and security mandate and agenda;
• African Peer Review Mechanism;
• Pan-African Parliament;
• AU response to recent African coup d’etats;
• African integration;
• After Libya: Prospects for AU-UN Cooperation
• The AU and the Arab Spring;
• International Law and the AU;
• Sino-AU relations;
• The AU’s new Strategic Plan; and the
• Finances of the AU.
The special issue on the future of the AU will be guest edited by Jo-Ansie van Wyk of the
Department of Political Sciences, University of South Africa (Unisa), Pretoria, South Africa.
Original contributions which will be subjected to double blind peer review should comply with
the Journal’s Guidelines for Authors (below) and should be submitted to the Guest Editor, Jo-
Ansie van Wyk, by 3 December 2012 via vwykjak@unisa.ac.za.
For more information on the JoAUS, go to Adonis & Abbey Publishers Limited:
http://adonisandabbey.com/