The Executive Director of the ISS, Dr Jakkie Cilliers and the Head of ISS/TfP program, Ms Annette Liejanaar, participated in the African Standby Force (ASF) beyond 2015 conference held at the Stellenbosch University, Western Cape, South Africa from 16-18 September 2015.  The conference was jointly presented by the Faculty of the Royal Danish Defence College and the Faculty of Military Science. Dr Cilliers spoke on the subject entitled ‘Peace and Security for Africa: A view from the top’. His presentation dealt with global and African trends in conflict, including political violent extremism using various data sets. This included a discussion on the fatality burden between key affected countries per 100 000 people and an examination of the high levels of non-state conflict in the Middle East and Africa compared to the rest of the world. His presentation included a discussion on the systemic imbalances that drive instability in sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa respectively. Final sections deal with the challenges presented in measuring the relative contribution of terrorism to political violence and even more narrowly, political violent extremism. His presentation concluded with a number of general recommendations on the future of conflict prevention and management at the level of the African Union. His presentation as well as many other presentations and discussions confirmed once more that there is a need to review the ASF scenarios that will result in other critical ASF issues to be addressed urgently.