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Book Launch: African Peace by Dr. Kathryn Nash
March 26, 2021 @ 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
The Conflict Resolution Program at Georgetown University is proud to host a discussion of Dr. Kathryn Nash’s newly published African Peace: Regional norms from the Organization of African Unity to the African Union (Manchester University Press 2021). The talk will be moderated by Dr. Lise Howard.
About African Peace: Regional norms from the Organization of African Unity to the African Union
African regional organizations have played leading roles in constructing collective conflict management rules for the continent, but these rules or norms have not been static. Currently, the African Union (AU) deploys monitors, authorizes peace support operations, and actively engages to resolve internal conflicts. Just a few decades ago, these actions would have been deeply controversial under the Organization of African Unity (OAU). What changed to allow for this transformation in the way the African regional organization approaches peace and security?
African peace examines why the OAU chose norms in 1963 that prioritized state security and led to a policy of strict non-interference – even in the face of destabilizing violence – and why the AU chose very different norms leading to a disparate conflict management policy in the early 2000s. Even if the AU’s capacity to respond to conflict is still developing, this new policy has made the region more willing and capable of responding to violence. Nash argues that norm creation largely happened within the African context, and international pressure was not a determinant factor in their evolution. The role of regions in the international order, particularly the African region, has been under-theorized and under-acknowledged, and this book adds to an emerging literature that explores the role of regional organizations in the Global South in creating and promoting norms based on their own experiences and for their own purposes.
About Dr. Kathryn Nash
Dr Kathryn Nash is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Political Settlements Research Program (PRSP) at the University of Edinburgh Law School. She completed her PhD at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Her research focuses on norms, the role of regions in the international community, and peace and security issues. Prior to beginning her PhD, Dr Nash worked for the U.S. Department of State first in the Bureau of African Affairs and then in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations. She has a Master’s degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and a Bachelor’s degree from the George Washington University in international relations.
About Dr. Lise Howard
Lise Morjé Howard is Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System. Her research and teaching span the fields of international relations, comparative politics, and conflict resolution. She has published articles and book chapters about civil wars, peacekeeping, and American foreign policy in many leading journals. Her book UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars (Cambridge University Press 2008), about organizational learning, won the 2010 book award from the Academic Council on the UN System. Her recent book, Power in Peacekeeping (Cambridge University Press 2019) won the 2021 book award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. Dr. Howard earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from UC, Berkeley, and her A.B. in Soviet Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University. She has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford University, Harvard University, and the U.S. Institute of Peace. She previously served as founding Director of the Georgetown MA Program in Conflict Resolution.