The Conceptual Development of Security and Its Impact on the Structural Development of Organization of African Unity into African Union

This paper is an attempt to study the impact of conceptual development of security from realistic and state-based to human-based views and its impact on the Organization of African Unity that how it changes into African Union. Though, it is hard to separate one factor in this organizational development, yet this paper is to analyze a framework of this organizational development in line with the development in the concept of the security and the organs made by the new organization to operationalize the human security. In fact, while the perspectives of the Organization of African Unity and African Union about security are studied, the procedures of this organizational development and its reasons will be examined too. Finally, those organs that African Union has planned for operationalization of its security view will be analyzed. The results of this research show that the discussion on the security concentration, the preservation of the human security and the promotion of human welfare which have appeared in security discourses at the middle of 1990s and formed the security perspective of African Union, is the most important aspect that caused the replacement of the Organization of African Unity with African Union. Therefore, this organization has accordingly designed some organs in order to operationalize its goals. The research method is descriptive–analytical.