Pragmatic eclecticism, neoclassical realism and post-structuralism: reconsidering the African response to the Libyan crisis of 2011

Abstract

This article analyses the role of the African Union (AU) during the Libyan crisis of 2011. It addresses the question of why the AU has not played a central conflict manager role in that crisis. Inspired by pragmatic eclecticism, we take a theoretical detour to answer this question. Through a neoclassical realist and post-structuralist lens, we provide a novel eclectic reconsideration of the crisis response and we also highlight shared ground between both perspectives. Our theoretical and empirical discussion moves along the categories ‘primacy of power’, ‘discourses’ and ‘leader images’. We highlight the ability of dominant powers to influence the unfolding of events with material forms of power but also through immaterial ones such as the advancement of a dominant discourse on a cosmopolitan liberal order related to the responsibility-to-protect.

Keywords:

• African union
• analytical eclecticism
• neoclassical realism
• post-structuralism
• Libya
• conflict management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive engagement with draft versions of this article. We also thank Adrian Hyde-Price, Emel Parlar Dar, Jan Aart Scholte, Maria Stern, Nora Stappert and Johan Karlsson Schaffer for their feedback and helpful suggestions on working drafts and presentations based on this research. Thank you also to Chiara de Franco and all participants at the workshop of the Nordic Political Science Association (NOPSA) meeting in Odense 2017 for very valuable feedback. All remaining errors are ours. Many thanks to Nikole Erickson for proofreading. Linnéa Gelot gratefully acknowledges funding from Swedish Research Council project reference 2015-03476 and Martin Welz from the Center of Excellence ‘Cultural Foundations of Integration’ at the University of Konstanz.

Notes

Notes

1 Kasaija, “The African Union”; Sithole, “The African Union Peace and Security.”

2 Grovogui, “Looking Beyond Spring”; Ping, “The African Union Role.”

3 Kasaija, “The African Union.”

4 Omorogbe, “The African Union”; Nnaeme and Asuelime, “The African Union’s Questionable Legitimacy”; Grovogui, “Looking Beyond Spring.”

5 Abass, “The African Union’s Response.”

6 Walt, “Learning the Right Lessons”; Luttwak, “Libya”; Kasaija, “The African Union”, explains the inability of African states to pursue collective positions as a reflection of capacity shortages and lack of political will.

7 Grovogui, “Looking Beyond Spring.”

8 Sil and Katzenstein, “Analytic Eclecticism.”

9 Sterling-Folker and Shinko, “Discourses of Power.”

10 Sil and Katzenstein, “Analytic Eclecticism,” 414.

11 Ibid.

12 Ibid., 417.

13 Sterling-Folker and Shinko, “Discourses of Power.”

14 Der Derian, “Philosophical Traditions,” 192.

15 Ripsman et al., Neoclassical Realist Theory.

16 George, “Of Incarnation and Closure,” 221.

17 Ripsman et al., Neoclassical Realist Theory, 31–57.

18 Schweller, “Deadly Imbalances,” 17–18.

19 Morgenthau, Politics among Nations, 9.

20 Abrahamsen, “The Power of Partnerships.”

21 Ibid., 1459.

22 Foucault, “Omnes et Singulatim”; Foucault, “What is Critique.”

23 Sterling-Folker and Shinko, “Discourses of Power,” 638.

24 Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 120–30.

25 Sterling-Folker and Shinko, “Discourses of Power,” 641–2. For the post-structuralist the productive possibility inherent in power use, such as resistance, can serve as a ‘resource’ to overcome or reconfigure structural constraints. We thank an anonymous reviewer for emphasising this point.

26 Ashley, “The Achievements of Post-structuralism,” 244.

27 Sterling-Folker and Shinko, “Discourses of Power,” 640; Kitchen, “Systemic Pressures.”

28 Schweller, “Deadly Imbalances.”

29 Laclau and Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, 108; Nabers, A Poststructuralist Discourse Theory.

30 Hansen, Security as Practice, 17.

31 Lundborg and Vaughan-Williams, “New Materialisms.”

32 Milliken, “The Study of Discourse.”

33 Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 229; Ashley, “The Geopolitics,” 410.

34 Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 230.

35 Taliaferro et al., “Neoclassical Realism.”

36 Ibid., 58–79.

37 David, “Explaining Third World Alignment.”

38 Sterling-Folker and Shinko, “Discourses of Power,” 639.

39 Kitchen, “Systemic Pressures,” 129.

40 Goetze, “Bringing Claude-Lévi Strauss”; Devetak, “Post-Structuralism.”

41 Milliken, “The Study of Discourse,” 236; Campbell, National Deconstruction, 34.

42 Of course, the ontological assumptions differ starkly, not least on the existence of objective reality and the possibility of truth claims.

43 Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

44 Kitchen, “Systemic Pressures.”

45 Ibid.

46 Ripsman et al., Neoclassical Realist Theory, 64.

47 Williams, The Realist Tradition, 32.

48 Ripsman et al., Neoclassical Realist Theory, 64.

49 Jacobi and Freyberg-Inan, Critical Investigations, 7.

50 Jacobi and Freyberg-Inan, “The Forum.”

51 Behr and Williams, “Interlocuting Classical Realism and Critical Theory.”

52 Sil and Katzenstein, “Analytic Eclecticism,” 414.

53 Obama et al., “Libya’s Pathway to Peace.”

54 UN Security Council, Resolution 1973.

55 AU PSC Communiqué of the 261st Meeting had strongly condemned regime crackdown on protesters.

AU Press Statement PSC/PR/BR.1(CCLXVIII), 23 March 2011 acknowledges the adoption of Resolution 1973.

56 Obama et al., “Libya’s Pathway to Peace.”

57 Ban Ki-Moon, “Address.”

58 Deputy Ambassador of Libya Ibrahim Dabbashi had defected when he requested an emergency meeting of the UNSC, see UN doc S/2011/102. On the importance of defections from the Gaddafi regime, see Kasaija, “The African Union,” 119.

59 Obama et al., “Libya’s Pathway to Peace.”

60 Hallams and Schreer, “Towards a ‘Post-American’ Alliance?” 323.

61 Breeden, “Nicolas Sarkozy.”

62 Malloy and Treyz, “Obama Admits Worst Mistake.”

63 Confidential interview by Martin Welz, senior official of the EEAS, Brussels, November 2013.

64 Kasaija, “The African Union,” 123–4; McKaiser, “Annual Ruth First Memorial Lecture,” 151.

65 Ripsman et al., Neoclassical Realist Theory, 52.

66 Maasho, “AU Says Non-Africans.”

67 Ping, “African Union Peace and Security Council, “Statement””; Lamamra, 275^th AU Peace and Security Council Ministerial Meeting.

68 de Waal, “African Roles.“

69 B⊘ås and Utas, “Introduction.”

70 Rossouw, “SA’s ‘No-Fly’ Vote.”

71 Confidential interview by Linnéa Gelot, senior AU official, Addis Ababa, April 2012.

72 AU, “Communiqué 595^th Meeting.”

73 Confidential interview by Linnéa Gelot, South African diplomat, Addis Ababa, April 2012.

74 Adebajo, “The Revolt against the West,” 1197.

75 Evans, “Interview.”

76 Bellamy, “Libya and the Responsibility to Protect”; for a critical position, see Hehir, “The Responsibility to Protect,” 39.

77 Pargeter, Libya, 1.

78 Obama et al., “Libya’s Pathway to Peace.”

79 Reus-Smit, “Liberal Hierarchy,” 72.

80 Bigo and Tsoukala, Terror, Insecurity and Liberty, 2.

81 Grovogui, “Looking Beyond Spring,” 569; AU, Communique of the 265^th meeting, para. 5.

82 Mbeki, “Union Africaine.”

83 de Waal, “African Roles,” 371.

84 Policymakers, academics, the media, etc. have played a role in fixing the discourse by reinforcing the representation of the intervention as necessary to ‘liberate’ a nation, and as a ‘universal’ success, see the description in Engelbrekt, “Why Libya?”

85 Joffé, “Libya and Europe,” 85.

86 Ogunbadejo, “Qaddafi’s North African Design.”

87 Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya, 170.

88 Zoubir, “Libya in US Foreign Policy,” 34.

89 Ibid.

90 Ibid., 33, 37.

91 Ibid., 46.

92 Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya, 178.

93 Ripsman et al., Neoclassical Realist Theory, 64; Zaller, The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion.

94 B⊘ås and Utas, “Introduction.”

95 Weiss and Welz, “The UN and AU.”

96 Mbeki, “Union Africaine”; Ebrahim, “Speech by Deputy Minister,” 134; Gelot, “The Role and Impact.”

97 Gazzini, “Assessing Italy’s Grande Gesto.”

98 Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya, 202.

99 Pargeter, Libya, 178–9.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Linnéa Gelot

Linnéa Gelot is Senior Researcher at the Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden, and an Associate Professor in Peace and Development at the School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University. Her research has focused on: peace operations, with a specialization in African-led conflict management efforts, institutionalism, especially the legitimacy of African organizations and the African Union-United Nations peace and security relationship, and militarism. Her research project “African Union Waging Peace” has employed the concepts of militarization and security practice theory to study militarizing institutional discourses and practices within African peace and security institutions. Her most recent publication is Gelot, Linnéa (2017). “Civilian Protection in Africa: How the Protection of Civilians is being Militarized by African Policymakers and Diplomats, Contemporary Security Policy 37(3), 1-13.

Martin Welz

Martin Welz is Senior Research Fellow at Department of Politics and Public Administration and at the Center of Excellence “Cultural Foundations of Integration“ at the University of Konstanz. His research focuses on the African Union, the United Nations and inter-organizational relationships especially in the context of peace operations. He is also interested in Africa’s role in the world, particularly with regard to the International Criminal Court. His publications include Integrating Africa: Decolonization’s Legacies, Sovereignty and the African Union (2013), “Military Twists and Turns in World Politics: Downsides or Dividends for UN Peace Operations?” (2015), and “Multi-actor Peace Operations and Interorganizational Relations: Insights from the Central African Republic” (2016). He is currently working on a book on African history and politics.