2021, Welz, Martin

2020, Welz, Martin

2018, Welz, Martin

This chapter aims to introduce a framework to categorize inter-organizational relations along three "Cs": coexistence, cooperation, and competition. Using this framework, it argues that the relations between the UN and African Union (AU) in peace and security questions fall under the rubric "competition" as opposed to the more euphemistic terms "subsidiarity" and "complementarity." This empirical argument draws on an overview of UN-regional relations after 1945, an analysis of interactions after the end of the Cold War and an analysis of the three recent military operations in Africa, those in Libya, Mali, and the Central African Republic. The chapter shows whether or not organization, commitment, and consensus are given by the UN and regional organizations in phases of coexistence, cooperation, and competition. Coexistence, as the side-by-side existence without major coordination and overlap of mandates thus describes the UN-regional relations during the Cold War period when regional organizations "were frequently little more than bystanders to unfolding international events".

2015, Weiss, Thomas G., Welz, Martin

Russia’s challenge to the post-cold war order, and the rise of Islamic State have resulted in a call for increased military spending among NATO members. Despite the increased demand for UN peace operations, any expansion is unlikely to benefit the world organisation. Instead we see an increasing reliance upon regional organisations like the African Union, European Union and NATO, in particular, for robust peace operations. An analysis of Western states (France, Germany and the USA) suggests that future investments in weaponry, technology and staff will primarily benefit NATO and the EU, but not the United Nations.

2020-03-03, Welz, Martin

This paper explores the relations of the African Union (AU) with its member states through the lens of principal–agent theory. I consider the AU Commission—an international public administration—as an agent to which its member states—the principals—delegate authority. I show that core assumptions of principal–agent theory apply to the AU’s relations with its member states. These include that principals aim to keep control over their agent, that we find agents acting opportunistically, that principals sanction the agent if needed and that the heterogeneity of preferences amongst principals decreases the level of authority delegated to the agent. However, my analysis also suggests that principal–agent theory needs to broaden its understandings of lock-in effects and of the reasons why states limit their delegation of authority.

2019-02-15, Gelot, Linnéa, Welz, Martin

This article analyses the role of the African Union (AU) during the Libyan crisis of 2011. It addresses the question of why the AU has not played a central conflict manager role in that crisis. Inspired by pragmatic eclecticism, we take a theoretical detour to answer this question. Through a neoclassical realist and post-structuralist lens, we provide a novel eclectic reconsideration of the crisis response and we also highlight shared ground between both perspectives. Our theoretical and empirical discussion moves along the categories ‘primacy of power’, ‘discourses’ and ‘leader images’. We highlight the ability of dominant powers to influence the unfolding of events with material forms of power but also through immaterial ones such as the advancement of a dominant discourse on a cosmopolitan liberal order related to the responsibility-to-protect.

2017, Melber, Henning, Kromrey, Daniela, Welz, Martin

This article presents an anatomy of power relations and policymaking within the ranks of the former liberation movement South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) in Namibia. It summarizes the features of Namibia's dominant party state and argues that Namibia is a case of competitive authoritarian rule. Our analysis documents how the first generation of SWAPO activists, in exile after the early 1960s, has since independence in 1990 remained the most influential segment of the former anti-colonial movement. This continuity is personified in the country's third president, Hage Geingob, and parts of his team in cabinet. Despite some gradual and increasingly visible shifts in the composition of SWAPO MPs, the party's first generation has so far remained largely in control of the country's political affairs. Analysing the background of the ministers serving since independence also shows that a second generation of SWAPO activists, in exile after the mid-1970s, gradually expanded their influence and took over leading positions. Given the dominance of SWAPO and the lack of any meaningful political opposition, a new leadership depends on upward inner-party mobility. Given the limited scope for a younger generation to move into higher offices, the strengthening of democracy through new leadership and innovative thinking is very limited. Rather, politics tends to be reproduced through established networks and bonds with a low degree of permissiveness, which reinforces the nature of the competitive authoritarian regime under the control of ‘old men’.

2020, Welz, Martin

This chapter argues that several African states have used the African Union (AU) to create the borderland of the global order on non-impunity and the AU order on non-impunity from which they benefit in many respects. It outlines the global and African orders related to non-impunity and define their borderland before the chapter analyses the reasons for this borderland’s emergence and its effects. The AU has constructed – though not institutionalised – an order that partly overlaps with the order anchored in the Rome Statute. Thinking in liberal terms, the AU order on non-impunity appears laudable for it goes much further than the Rome Statute as it covers ten additional crimes related to unconstitutional changes of government, piracy, terrorism, mercenarism, corruption, money laundering, trafficking of persons, drugs, and hazard waste as well as illicit exploitation of natural resources.

2019, Welz, Martin

This chapter explores conflict management during the crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) that erupted in late 2012 and was described as being on the verge of genocide. It focuses on the responses to that conflict by France and various international organizations such as the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States, the European Union, and the United Nations. The chapter describes the CAR case suggests that competition between international organizations can delay an adequate response to a conflict and can lead to massive security problems on the ground. It provides a key role in deciding whether there is a rapid response or not. The chapter outlines the organizations’ mandates to demonstrate that overlapping mandates are one source of inter-organizational competition, which in the case of ECCAS-AU relations led to massive problems on the ground. It introduces the aforementioned key actors and analyzes their policies and actions.

2016-08-07, Welz, Martin

Multi-actor peace operations have become the dominant mode of peace operations since the end of the cold war. This article uses the literature on institutional linkages and inter-organizational relations, thus far developed independently from the literature on such operations, to shed light on the relations between the organizations involved in them. The analysis of one specific case – the interactions between the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States and the European Union in the Central African Republic – shows the usefulness of merging this body of theory with the primarily empirically driven research on peace operations and UN–regional collaboration. The findings of this study are meant to facilitate further research on multi-actor peace operations and serve as a building block for a theory explaining the emergence and configuration of such operations.