10 th FES Annual Conference: Peace and Security in the Horn of Africa “Consolidating Regional Cooperation While Protecting National Security Interests: Diametric Opposition or Precondition for Peace and Security?” Nairobi, Kenya, 21—22 October 2014 Antonia Witt November 2014 • Security dynamics in the Horn of Africa are shaped by states’ shared interest in having a peaceful region, on one hand, and competition between them, on the other. This year’s FES conference on peace and security in the Horn of Africa, however, stressed that the debate needs to move beyond a binary distinction between national and regional interests. It highlighted that the dynamics between the region’s various security actors, as well as the ambiguous consequences of regional security, merit more attention. • Although the initiative to deepen the policy dialogue on regional security cooperation was welcomed, the conference revealed that there are still crucial lines of division. These can be clustered along three questions:(i) which understanding of security and security actors should guide the debate?;(ii) who will define the regional peace and security agenda?; and(iii) to what extent and for what purpose should regional security policy become institutionalised in existing regional organisations? • The discussion of the conflicts in South Sudan and Somalia in particular highlighted these divisive lines. South Sudan has seen competing regional peacemakers(IGAD, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania) and competing strategies(military versus political). Somalia still poses the problem of uniting the region’s protagonists under AMISOM and moving beyond a military strategy. Both cases underlined that the region’s states have ambiguous approaches towards IGAD, which remains under-resourced and prone to competition among its most powerful members. Moreover, the current practice of ad hoc, state-driven security policies may at times be in contradiction with the interests of national elites as well as with those of the local population. • Finally, the conference disclosed a need for further dialogue on how to redefine the region in more positive terms. Rather than thinking of the region only as a product of national policies, this could lead to a more positive definition of a vision for the region in its own right. Such a dialogue could start from a reflection on the region’s positive lessons or from the potentials that emanate from deepened economic integration.