Amadu Sesay

Amadu Sesay is a professor of international relations at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. In the following viewpoint, he examines the prospects of regional organizations in Africa—especially the Organization of African Unity (OAU)—for preventing and managing conflict. The end of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union, he contends, presents new opportunities for African nations to manage their own affairs and work for peace on the continent. However, the conflict-management initiatives of the OAU, which was founded in 1963, are hampered by a lack of funding and reluctance on the part of African countries to interfere in internal conflicts of other nations. Sesay concludes that African nations must, through the OAU or some other agency, cooperate to create a peacekeeping force and...