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The AU: a new arena for Anglo-French cooperation in Africa?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Tony Chafer
Tony Chafer*
Affiliation:
Centre for European & International Studies Research, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2DZ, United Kingdom
*
Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

At their 1998 Saint-Malo summit, the UK and French governments promised to set aside a century of rivalry and cooperate more closely on Africa. They also signalled their intention to develop a continent-wide focus on Africa, which would include building up the capacity of regional organisations. They were helped in this latter goal by the winding up of the OAU and its replacement by the AU in 2002. This article therefore examines the extent and nature of Anglo-French cooperation vis-à-vis the AU. It sets out briefly the history of UK and French neglect of the OAU, reviews the key developments that pushed for a more coordinated stance on the AU, and then – drawing on extensive interviews in London, Paris, Brussels, Addis Ababa and Dakar – evaluates the extent of Anglo-French cooperation. It concludes by noting the uneven nature of Anglo-French cooperation vis-à-vis the AU and assesses the reasons for this.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 49 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 55 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

*

The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the British Academy for the research project on which this article is based. He also wishes to thank Gordon Cumming and the journal's anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of the article.

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