African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • #EndSARS
  • Specials
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • #EndSARS
  • Specials
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Debating Ideas
Politics

Syria: a view from Africa – By Alex de Waal

By African Arguments
September 12, 2013
2848
5
Share:

Alex-de-Waal1African views on Syria are well worth considering, and the letter signed by 43 members of the Africa Forum””former heads of state and leaders of international institutions””should be compulsory reading: STATEMENT OF THE AFRICA FORUM ON THE SITUATION IN SYRIA.

The central point made is the importance of multilateral institutions and international law. This has been a central theme of African diplomacy since Emperor Haile Selassie travelled to Geneva to speak at the League of Nations, to protest at the perfidy of the great powers of the day, when his country was subject to Fascist aggression and chemical warfare. Africans harbor a deep distrust of the intentions of the great powers of the day, and see that the rights of less powerful nations and the citizens of those nations are best served by a multilateral framework and international law.

Africa has also been the location of the largest number of international military interventions, including most recently Cí´te d’Ivoire, Libya, and Mali. There are lessons to be learned from these.

Africa has enormous experience in the resolution of civil wars. African experience is that wars are ended through political negotiation. Military intervention, with either the stated or unstated object of regime change or (its counterpart) total defeat of an insurgency, does not end conflicts, but at best mutates them and at worst escalates them. The African Union is not averse to using force–it typically is the first responder in the most difficult situations such as Darfur, Somalia and Mali. But African practice underscores the importance of using force in support of a political-diplomatic strategy, not as an alternative to one.

African experience has contributed to a number of guiding principles for conflict resolution, notably an insistence on all stakeholders being involved in negotiating a settlement. Were the Syrian conflict taking place on the African continent, all the neighbors would be engaged in a forum seeking a settlement.

The AU has also adopted relevant principles into its own Constitutive Act, such as suspending governments that come to power through unconstitutional means. In July that provision was applied to suspend Egypt: a decision that, controversial at the time, has appeared more and more appropriate as the weeks have passed.

Alex de Waal is Director of the World Peace Foundation.

This piece is cross-posted from ‘Reinventing Peace,’ the World Peace Foundation blog.

Previous Article

Should access to the internet be a ...

Next Article

African commodities bonanza still not financing sustainable ...

mm

African Arguments

5 comments

  1. suzanne visschedijk 13 September, 2013 at 11:00

    Nice reading. Many thanks. Could you please provide a link to this statement?

  2. Edward Clay 13 September, 2013 at 15:42

    I’d appreciate clarification as to which falsehoods in relation to the intervention in Libya the former African leaders are referring to?

  3. Syria: A View From Africa | Afrocentric Confessions 15 September, 2013 at 10:04

    […] By Alex de Waal | Published in African Arguments online […]

  4. Pocket Links | maria r. andersen 16 September, 2013 at 03:03

    […] Africa must, Alex de Waal, writes on Syria, from an Africa […]

  5. Seyi Martins 16 September, 2013 at 19:14

    Indeed the power play being expressed by the powers that be over Syria is such that is making conflict resolution so far reaching for the Syrian people. Some nations are enjoying the renewed popularity as to who will win this war of words less action, at stopping the war. There are no saints to this upraising, let’s get the parties to negotiate soon.

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • Politics

    Fighting poverty in South Africa: the NDP, ANC and a political Big Beast – By Desné Masie

  • EconomyEditor's PicksKenya

    Corruption’s big week

  • Climate Change in Africa
    Uncategorized

    Climate Change in Africa

The Africa Insiders Newsletter

Get the free edition of our exclusive look at this week’s most important developments on the continent.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!

  • 77414
    Followers

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Most read

  • The police block opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine in December 2020 during the Uganda presidential election campaign. Credit: HEBobiwine.

    Uganda: How donors can go beyond “strongly-worded statements”

  • Tunisians mark Martyrs' Day in Tunis on 9 April 2013 to demand justice for victims of the 2011 revolution. Credit: Magharebia.

    The Tunisian Revolution’s young dreams are unfulfilled but unforgotten

  • A youth convention in Rwanda in 2017. Credit: Paul Kagame.

    The disappearance of half a million young people from Rwanda’s stats

  • maghreb queer film A shot from Raja Amari’s Al Dowaha (Buried Secrets).

    Silence and skin: Depicting queerness in Maghrebian films

  • africa vaccine Community representatives in Beni, North Kivu, DRC, spreading health awareness. Photo: World Bank / Vincent Tremeau

    Africa has a history of vaccine hesitancy but also of solutions to it

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu