Headquarters of International Organizations as Portals of Globalization: The African Union Commission and its Peace and Security Policies

Synopsis

With a view to analyse the changing spatialities of power and shifting sovereignties in current processes of globalization, this text investigates the headquarters of the African Union. It does so through the lens of portals of globalization and a focus on (1) new, dense practices emerging in response to experiences in the field of peace and security; (2) newly established social spaces of communication, and (3) forms of cultural learning, creativity, and innovation emanating from this condition. The case study on the African Union and its partnership with the United Nations demonstrates that such an approach could add value to the understanding of international organizations and their role at the centre of managing the reterritorialization of contemporary processes of globalization.

Biographical Note

Prof. Dr. Ulf Engel (SFB 1199 & Institute of African Studies, Leipzig University, Germany)
Trained as a political scientist, Ulf Engel is a professor at the Institute of African Studies in Leipzig. He is the director of the DFG-funded PhD Research Training Programme (GK 1261): “Critical Junctures of Globalization” (2006–2016), the co-director of the DFG Priority Programme (SPP 1448): “Adaptation and Creativity in Africa” (2011–2017), and the director of the Integrated Research Training Group of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1199): “Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition”. Engel is also a visiting professor at the Institute for Peace and Security Studies at Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), a professor extraordinary in the Department of Political Science at Stellenbosch University, and a fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS, South Africa).