The Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR), Cape Town, South Africa, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Berlin, Germany, hosted a colloquium in Berlin, from 30 to 31 August 2012, on “The African Union at Ten: Aspirations and Reality”. The African Union (AU) was founded in 2002 on a wave of optimism about the continent’s future, and was equipped with stronger administrative mechanisms and greater powers of intervention in the affairs of its member states than its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). In the past decade, the AU has sought to establish integrated frameworks to address Africa’s security, governance, and development challenges. The Berlin 2012 colloquium analysed the AU’s achievements and challenges, and crafted concrete recommendations to strengthen its effectiveness. The meeting considered the history of the AU; reviewed the ten years since the implementation of its peace and security architecture; compared the regional integration efforts of the AU and the European Union (EU); assessed its strategies to achieve socio-economic development; and reviewed the AU’s global role.
