African Security Governance and International Relations

African security governance intersects institutional frameworks, regional organisations and external partnerships to address a spectrum of threats ranging from armed conflict and terrorism to maritime piracy and climate-induced instability. Central to this landscape is the evolving role of the African Union and subregional bodies such as ECOWAS, the East African Community and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which draw on legal mandates and collective action protocols to conduct peacekeeping, conflict mediation and preventive diplomacy. The concept of African agency has gained currency, recognising the capacity of state and non-state actors to both shape and resist external interventions. At the same time, major powers and supranational entities engage in security cooperation and capacity-building, often recalibrating their approach to accommodate African priorities and institutional norms. Contemporary debates highlight the merits and limitations of local ownership, the translation of global norms into regional practice and the influence of postcolonial legacies on operational effectiveness. By linking normative aspirations with practical tools—such as standby forces, regional court jurisprudence and civilian protection frameworks—research illuminates pathways towards more coherent, credible and sustainable security architectures. This multidisciplinary field draws on political science, law and development studies to explore how governance, legitimacy and agency converge to define Africa’s security dynamics and their impact on international relations.

Research from Nature Portfolio

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African Security Governance and International Relations publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in african security governance and international relations across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Security governance: The processes, institutions and norms governing the management and prevention of security threats.

Regional organisation: A formal grouping of states within a geographic region that collaborates on political, economic and security issues under a shared legal framework.

African agency: The capacity of African actors—states, organisations and individuals—to independently shape decision-making and policies in international affairs.

Implicit amnesty: A tacit agreement to refrain from prosecuting individuals for serious crimes to facilitate peace negotiations and power-sharing.

Disutility of force: A concept describing the negative political and social consequences that arise when the use of military force deepens conflict rather than resolving it.

References

1. The Legal Framework for Regional Organisations in Africa and the Proactive Role in Addressing Threats to International Peace and Security. International Journal of Law and Policy (2024).
2. The question of African agency in international relations. Cogent Social Sciences (2018).
3. (Dis)utilities of Force in a Postcolonial Context: Explaining the Strategic Failure of the French-Led Intervention in Mali. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding (2023).
4. The African Standby Force: An Element of Prospective Multilevel Security Governance. IDS Bulletin (2012).
5. Terrorists versus Rebels: The Strategic Use of Implicit Amnesty in the Peace Process in Mali. International Studies Quarterly (2024).