Abstract
The African Union (AU) is a young international organisation, founded in 2002, which is still in the process of setting up its various institutions, while constantly having to face up to new challenges, such as civil wars breaking out and military coups being undertaken in its member states. Moreover, the ‘African Security Architecture’, of which it is the central component, also includes sub-regional organisations to which responsibility is to be devolved for dealing with armed confl ict and other matters. These so-called Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are, likewise, constantly changing, just as they have very different strengths. Hence, any account of the AU and the RECs can only provide a ‘snapshot’ of the organisation at any given time, one which may soon become outdated. In contrast with regional and sub-regional organisations in the North, those in Africa are facing an additional challenge: how to match the urgent need for strong organisations to deal with some of the world’s most protracted and destructive confl icts with a desperate shortage of resources. Access to external funding from other international organisations, such as the EU, the World Bank, various UN agencies or individual donor countries, thus to a large extent determines whether initiatives will actually be implemented and whether institutions will actually be established or remain empty shells.