Sierra Leone’s 2024–2025 tenure on the United Nations Security Council unfolded during a period of visible retreat from an international law-based order, marked by rising unilateralism, intensifying geopolitical rivalry, selective application of norms, and growing strain on the UN Charter’s collective security scheme. Drawing on Sierra Leone’s Council experience and the framing of Amani Africa’s 2026 Pre-AU Summit High-level Dialogue on ‘Africa at a Crossroads: Pan-Africanism, the breakdown of  global order, and the Future of Collective Security,’ this paper argues that the present moment, while destabilizing, also creates strategic space for African recalibration. Four interrelated pathways emerge: consolidation of African solidarity through the A3 and A3 Plus; principled African engagement on global crises beyond the continent; strategic navigation of multipolarity through coalition-building and stronger resource-governance safeguards; and a dual reform agenda centered on Security Council reform and operational subsidiarity under Chapter VIII. The paper concludes that Africa’s policy task is neither inward retreat nor rhetorical resistance, but the practical advancement of African agency: investing in African solutions while sustaining global relevance through principled, coalition-based diplomacy.