Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated coup d'état. Within the African Union (AU), there has been a concerted effort to break this cycle through the official adoption of “anti-coup norms,” by which the AU is mandated to suspend a member state and restore constitutional order following a coup. Supporters of this stance see it as strengthening democracy in Africa, while critics argue that it has served to prop up existing regimes. But there has been little analysis of what the AU’s attempts to “restore constitutional order” have meant for individual African states.

In this book, Antonia Witt looks at the legacy of the AU’s intervention in Madagascar following the 2009 “Malagasy crisis,” one of the few instances of non-Western intervention in Africa. The book looks at the ways in which international intervention reconfigured the political order in Madagascar, and unwittingly facilitated the power struggle within the Madagascan elite. It also considers what the example set by the Madagascan intervention means for “anti-coup” efforts and the wider international order in Africa.