INTRODUCTION

The African Union (AU) and its peace and security order, known in conventional discourse as the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), are at a cross roads. Internally, in addition to the expansion of the number and geographic spread of conflicts, the continent suffers from major deficit of collective leadership both on the part of states and at the level of pan-African multilateral bodies. Africa also faces a crisis of political and strategic cohesion owing, among others, to the erosion of commitment to and pursuit of the collective vision of Pan-Africanism. At the global level, the international system is in a state of deep crises.