This article traces the evolution of the African Union as a successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity in terms of its mandate for conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking and peace-building. The Union has established a continent-wide peace and security architecture through its Peace and Security Council. The paper looks at the different elements of this architecture with special focus on peacekeeping operations and institutions such as the Early Warning Mechanism, Peer Review Mechanism, Panel of the Wise and the Standby Force, which together constitute the support structure of the Council. The regional economic communities are the building blocks of this architecture creating something like a ‘multi-layered security community’. They function synergistically by acting as conduits of policy implementation of the Union. Finally, it also identifies some of the hurdles ahead of the organisation to realise a robust peace and security architecture on the continent.
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