African special envoys in practice: a research agenda for studying complex diplomatic interventions

Abstract

African Special Envoys deployed by the African Union and Regional Economic Communities are a growing phenomenon in African peace-making as part of a broader project of deepening local solutions to African problems. However, there are still many gaps in the research examining how they carry out their interventions in practice and the specific social, institutional and contextual factors and conditions that influence what they do in the field. Dimpho Deleglise's report fills this gap by reconstructing the activities of African Special Envoys to date, identifying existing research and gaps in the literature, and highlighting the need for a practice-oriented research agenda on African Special Envoys.