The African Union's Operations in the Comoros. MAES and Operation Democracy

MAES, an AU mission set up to secure the elections in the Comoros, would not have been able to succeed in fulfilling its mandate without the complimentary intervening AU mission "Operation Democracy". Operation Democracy on the other hand has been a breakthrough for the AU when it comes to planning and conducting peace operations; and succeeded in accomplishing its tasks. One still has to be careful to draw too many positive conclusions for the future of AU. PSOs based on the experiences in the Comoros since operations Democracy differs from earlier Peace Support Oerations (PSO) taken on by the AU. If the AU decides to conduct similar missions in the future, it might affect the possibility to conduct operations in more complex conflict environments, something the AU previously has taken on. Furthermore, the lack of support from key states might have consequences for the AU´s ability to take appropriate and timely action.