Date: Sat Nov 22 14:16:50 2014
African scholars confront NATO’s legitimacy on African security issues
Written by
<http://www.thereporterethiopia.com/index.php/news-headlines/itemlist/user/6
2-yemanenagish> Yemane Nagish
22 November 2014
“NATO should take the ultimate responsibly on Libya”
Festus B. Aboagye (Col.)
During a discussion focused on future prospects and relations African
security experts and scholars confronted the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO’s) legitimacy on African security issues showcasing
Libya.
At a seminar themed: “AU-NATO collaboration: Towards a strategic
partnership”, which was held at the Sheraton Addis on Thursday, officials
from NATO faced fierce confrontation from their AU and Ethiopian
counterparts.
The seminar focused on how the relations between NATO and AU should look
like.
The source of contention was a research presented by Mehari Taddele Maru
(PhD), an international consultant on AU affairs and a research fellow at
NATO Defense College.
In his presentation, “Resetting AU-NATO relations”, Mehari slashed NATO’s
security intervention in Africa as an “illegitimate” one by taking the
Libyan case as a bad experience. NATO was instrumental in overthrowing the
government of Muammar Gaddafi.
Mehari criticized the relations based on facts that it is merely technical
and military which lacked necessary political and diplomatic precedences. He
also questioned the mandate of the involvement of NATO in Libya for it does
not take into account the primacy of AU’s political decisions in African
affairs.
Recalling the political and the diplomatic differences that emerged after
the Libyan experience, he noted, “It is argued that the Libyan crisis
should inform but not define AU-NATO collaboration. Political dialogue will
be vital”.
In exploring opportunities for a future strategic partnership based on mega
trends in Africa, the scholar noted that the cooperation should be based in
principles.
“Such cooperation should be strictly governed by the principles of
complementary, comparative advantage and respect for the mandate of the AU
on peace and security issues in Africa”, he said.
Stating that it is a mismatched relations, Mehari concluded that the
ultimate aim of the partnership needs to be self-reliance and enhancement of
AU’s capacity to act by itself. He further suggested that there is a need to
avoid ‘capacity substitution’ and ‘aid addiction’.
Discussant, Brooke Smith-Windsor (PhD), from NATO Defense College, defended
issues of concern that were raised by Mehari. He said that the Libyan
intervention was made according to diplomatic and political decisions made
by 28 member states of the organization. “On the Libyan experience, we have
to be careful that the execution was demanding urgent response. African
member states reacted in different ways. The decision to intervene was made
not by diplomats but by 28 member states, in consensus”, he reacted.
He went further to correct that the Libyan experience did not break the
relations between the two organizations. Recalling that NATO reacted to the
situation according to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)
resolution, he said it was partly a problem in dealing with the AU since
NATO is not considered as a regional organization by the African Union.
Festus B. Aboagye (Col.), executive director of African Peace Support
Trainers Association, further endorsed the concerns raised by Mehari. He
noted: “NATO has to take responsibility to the chaos and current situation
in Libya”.
Supporting Mehari’s points he raised more questions like: Is there a
rational for strategic partnership and is that a necessary one?
Recognizing the need for mutual cooperation, he went to say: “There must be
a degree of legitimacy. After all, NATO has no political and legal mandate
in Africa. Whereas AU has,” he emphasized. “If the AU doesn’t see NATO as an
equal partner, there will no form of partnership,” he concluded.
Sibhat Nega, executive director of the Ethiopian International Institute for
Peace and Development (EIIPD), further looked into political problems in
Africa. “Supporting dictators is not the solution. There must have been a
lesson NATO could have learned. You were not genuine in Africa”, he
exclaimed.
On the experience of NATO he asked, “Did it enhance or weaken terrorism?” he
further explained, “You destroyed an ancient sate of Afghanistan to a non
existent one. You are now exporting terrorism. The problem we are facing in
Somalia is not rooted in it. It's from some where else; it is external”.
Another outspoken person was the military attaché of the Libyan embassy in
Addis Ababa, Salah Bureqaqa. He said they were happy with the military
intervention of NATO but he complained for it did not finish its business.
“We had one enemy, Gadaffi. Now we have many enemies fighting in Libya. The
Libyan people are now very sad with NATO,” he noted while speaking on the
problem of collecting weapons. He said over 25 million guns are spread
illegally allover Libya.
The seminar was co-organized by the NATO Defense college and the Royal
Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia.
<http://www.thereporterethiopia.com/media/k2/items/cache/681ce4883e44e134adf
daa9762e2ced0_XL.jpg> From left: Brooke Smith-Windsor (PhD), Samuel Assefa
(PhD), former Ethiopia’s ambassador to the US, Mehari Taddele Maru (PhD) and
Festus B. Aboagye (Col.)From left: Brooke Smith-Windsor (PhD), Samuel Assefa
(PhD), former Ethiopia’s ambassador to the US, Mehari Taddele Maru (PhD) and
Festus B. Aboagye (Col.) Featured
(image/jpeg attachment: image003.jpg)