On The Collective Security Mechanism Of The African Continent After The Cold War

From the end of Cold War, several reasons lead African countries and people tofind a better approach to solve the African conflicts, which is in the interests ofthemselves and meets the demands of African development. Therefore, the collectivesecurity mechanism of African continent is established. The security mechanismconsists of the organization of African integration, the African sub-regionalorganizations and the regional powers in Africa. The Organization of African Unityand its successor African Union, the main sub-regional organizations---WesternAfrican Economic Community and the Southern African Development Community, aswell as the main African powers---South Africa and Nigeria, whole of which makegreat efforts and contributions to the African peacekeeping operations.In the over twenty years’ development, the collective security mechanism ofAfrican continent has achieved a lot: creating a “non-centralized collective securitymechanism, justifying the peace enforcement operation and founding the “earlywarning and reaction system” for African conflicts. However, collective securitymechanism of African continent has also exposed some shortcomings, for example,the legitimacy of peace operation suffered doubt, the capacity of peacekeeping forceis not enough and the coordination and communication mechanism for each actor isimperfect.Besides, the collective security mechanism of African continent also meets somechallenges. In order to improve and perfect the collective security mechanism ofAfrican continent, African countries and people should take some measures: firstly,strengthen the construction of the collective security mechanism of African continent;secondly, coordinate the relation of peaceful construction and all-round socialdevelopment; lastly, properly treat the relation between African factors and foreignforces.