Occasional Paper

Establishing an Early Warning System in the African Peace and Security Architecture: Challenges and Prospects

“This paper examines the progress and challenges of this system by looking at the African Union and other African regional organisations. Key issues to be discussed include a historical background to the CEWS and commonly contested issues in the system. Using different facts and the experiences of the regional organisations, this paper tries to show the challenges and merits of early warning systems in Africa. It also argues that the early warning systems should be included in every stage of conflict and explains that the core value of early warning should be the protection of individuals by the state or by the regional organizations if the state fails to do so. This paper seeks to explore the challenges at the levels of both the AU and the regional organisations and will recommend common points for a more proactive CEWS. This paper also examines the gaps between the RECs and the African Union related to the early warning system in the APSA.”