A Discourse Analysis of the Role of Collective African Identity in the Shifting Conceptualisation of Sovereignty within the Organization of African Unity, 1990-1999

In the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was adopted in 2000, grants the organisation the right to intervene in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. This reflects a conceptualisation of sovereignty as responsibility. To understand this shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis of nine official declarations of the Organization of African Unity between 1990 and 1999 through the lens of constructivist theory. It finds that collective identity, in the guise of Pan-Africanism, serves an important role in enabling the shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty through narrative and interaction. This suggests that collective identity, explicitly on the regional level, is an important factor to be considered in the institutionalisation of humanitarian intervention and has...Show moreIn the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was adopted in 2000, grants the organisation the right to intervene in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. This reflects a conceptualisation of sovereignty as responsibility. To understand this shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis of nine official declarations of the Organization of African Unity between 1990 and 1999 through the lens of constructivist theory. It finds that collective identity, in the guise of Pan-Africanism, serves an important role in enabling the shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty through narrative and interaction. This suggests that collective identity, explicitly on the regional level, is an important factor to be considered in the institutionalisation of humanitarian intervention and has implications for the Responsibility to Protect.Show less

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A Discourse Analysis of the Role of Collective African Identity in the Shifting Conceptualisation of Sovereignty within the Organization of African Unity, 1990-1999