The past two decade has witnessed a nuanced approach to addressing the institutional and normative responses to Africa’s unending security challenges, particularly the African Union’s mandate to create the African Standby Force (ASF). The growing infeasibility of operationalising the ASF has thus stimulated the conception of the South African initiated African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC). This article places the establishment of ACIRC within the theoretical concept of flexible integration, specifically the ‘multiple-speed’ approach. This approach highlights the willingness of a group of member states to proceed with integrative measures at a much faster and deeper pace. The possibility of developing an AU framework that sets the operational parameters of this idea is at the core of this article.

在过去的十年中，目睹了采取细微差别的方法来应对针对非洲无休止的安全挑战，尤其是非洲联盟建立非洲待命部队（ASF）的任务所采取的体制和规范性应对措施。因此，实施ASF的日益不可行，激发了由南非发起的非洲立即应对危机能力（ACIRC）的构想。本文将ACIRC的建立置于灵活集成的理论概念之内，特别是“多速”方法。这种方法突显了一个成员国集团愿意以更快，更深的步伐采取一体化措施的意愿。本文的核心是开发设置该思想的操作参数的AU框架的可能性。