On The Establishment And Development Of African Union

At the turn of the century, as the fast development of economic globalization, Africa is confronting with tremendous challenges in political, economical and social fields. Africa needs a continental organization with higher authority than the Organization of African Unity (OAU). On July 9, 2002, African Union (AU) was founded, which made the African leaders'ideals of African unification into reality.As the second important allied body in the world, the AU has learned from European Union (EU) to a large extent. It is assumed that both of them have some similarities and their unique characters in background, structure and economic field.In the establishment background, AU is the certainly result of Pan-Africanism Movement, which is racial equality motion pointing to strive for independence by West Indians and American black. Guided by the Pan-Africanism Movement, the African nations have ended the disputes, and set up the OAU in 1963. Under the impact of economic globalization, the Pan-Africanism Movement evolved into the idea of establishing African Union, and eventually led to its establishment.In the organizational structure, according to the"Constitutive Act of the African Union", the purpose of AU is to improve and protect human rights, consolidate democratic institutions and culture, ensure good governance and the rule of law, realize the Africa's democracy and stability, promote common development. As a result, fourteen strategies, sixteen principles and nine agencies of AU are regulated.In the economic field, AU has raised"the New Partnership for Africa's Development"to eradicate poverty, keep the sustainable development, and has taken many concrete developmental plans. It is the African countries'strategic program, which aim to develop economy through alliance and to impel the social progress. It also shows that African countries'determination to rely on their own forces to strengthen international cooperation, integrate into the international trend, and finally realize the determination of communal development. However, as"the New Partnership for Africa's Development"has identified many unrealistic development targets which are too far to reach, accompanied with the lack of solid financial support, maybe it is not easy to achieve the objectives.Economic globalization as a double-edged sword, takes countless opportunities and challenges to AU. Along with high-speeding development, the AU gets more and more attention from international society. Many developed and developing countries have given the assistance to African countries, such as reducing the external debt, increasing financial and technical input and so on, which to some extent are conducive to the revitalization and development of African countries. But Africa still confronts the difficult problems caused by war and disease, the heavy foreign debt, continuous poverty, unbalanced development of regional countries, the drain of brains, the shortage of funds and so on. All of these will lead to the AU facing unprecedented challenges.Globalization competition brings tremendous impact to the weak AU. How should the AU to hold the opportunities and meet the challenges? How should the AU to face the process of the globalization? These questions are worthy of careful consideration and examination. This article did a preliminary analysis based on the above-mentioned contents in establishment and development of AU, and by drawing on the European Union's development experience, proposed ten measures for AU to respond to global competition.In a word, the establishment of the AU has just laid a cornerstone to the whole development process of the African continent. To establish the Africa allied edifice and realize the African political and economic integration, AU will take important responsibilities and there is a long way to go!...