The goal of this rubric is to filter and promote the recent scholarship on Africa coming from the leading IR and Area Studies journals. The Regional Security Knowledge Hub team periodically refreshes the list, in winter, spring, summer and autumn. If you are interested in getting updates on the new content, please subscribe to our newsletter.
2025
“Making peace by fighting war: Competing visions of conflict management and African agency in the “new scramble for Africa” by Jacqui Cho, Contemporary Security Policy 46 (3): 522-550 (2025).
Abstract: The article situates the endeavor of conflict resolution in geopolitical changes. It highlights how the post-Cold War norm of negotiated settlements is increasingly challenged both by changes within the so-called liberal states and by alternative visions of conflict management advanced by rising powers such as Russia and China. At the same time, the diversification of external actors seeking to expand their influence and secure friends in Africa, often dubbed the “new scramble for Africa,” has enhanced the leverage of African states in their engagements with foreign powers. Through an in-depth case study of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, mobilizing over 60 original interviews, the article shows how renewed great power competition has led to a contested normative environment concerning how violent conflicts ought to be managed, increasingly generating more tolerance for the use of force while undermining the appeal and viability of dialogue and negotiations.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2430021
“Making peace by fighting war: Competing visions of conflict management and African agency in the “new scramble for Africa” by Jacqui Cho, Contemporary Security Policy 6 (3): 522-550 (2025).
Abstract: The article situates the endeavor of conflict resolution in geopolitical changes. It highlights how the post-Cold War norm of negotiated settlements is increasingly challenged both by changes within the so-called liberal states and by alternative visions of conflict management advanced by rising powers such as Russia and China. At the same time, the diversification of external actors seeking to expand their influence and secure friends in Africa, often dubbed the “new scramble for Africa,” has enhanced the leverage of African states in their engagements with foreign powers. Through an in-depth case study of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, mobilizing over 60 original interviews, the article shows how renewed great power competition has led to a contested normative environment concerning how violent conflicts ought to be managed, increasingly generating more tolerance for the use of force while undermining the appeal and viability of dialogue and negotiations.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2025.2500262
“Instrumentalizing crisis as capital: eco-humanitarian rentierism and the global politics of aid“, by Gerasimos Tsourapas and Imad El-Anis, International Affairs 101 (6): 2149–2172 (2025).
Abstract: This article introduces the concept of ‘eco-humanitarian rentierism’ to explain how states facing intersecting crises of climate change and forced displacement strategically mobilize crisis narratives to extract external resources. Building on theories of rentierism, migration diplomacy and environmental politics, it argues that states convert ecological and humanitarian risk into geopolitical, economic and symbolic capital by aligning with donor priorities and performing responsibility within fragmented global governance regimes. Through a comparative analysis of Egypt and Jordan, the article draws on policy documents, official speeches and donor agreements to trace how governments construct and operationalize crisis narratives that attract finance and international recognition. These rent-seeking practices rely on crisis narration, discursive alignment and performative compliance, and are rewarded within institutional architectures marked by asymmetry, fragmentation and donor discretion. While these strategies generate short-term gains in funding, visibility and diplomatic leverage, they risk reinforcing dependency, marginalizing affected populations and displacing longer-term redistributive reform. The analysis advances International Relations debates on agency under constraint, the strategic behaviours of weaker states and the reproduction of global hierarchies through the political economy of aid. By bringing together debates on environmental politics, migration governance and the international political economy of crisis, the article offers an original framework for understanding how global South states navigate and reproduce structural hierarchies in the international system. It highlights the political and ethical stakes of converting crisis into capital, and calls for more integrated, participatory and equitable approaches to global crisis governance that prioritize long-term resilience over transactional management.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaf185
“Why hide? Africa’s unreported debt to China” by Kathleen J. Brown, The Review of Interantional Organizations 20 (1): 1-32 (2025).
Abstract: Hidden debt is endemic throughout the sovereign credit market and poses a serious threat to global financial stability. Yet, little is known about why governments conceal their liabilities from creditors. I argue that governments intentionally hide debts from international financial institutions (IFIs) to maximize their ability to borrow while avoiding punishment for rising debt burdens. IFIs frequently penalize governments in low-income countries for borrowing beyond their means. By hiding some debt, governments are able to continue borrowing without being disciplined. I test this using recently released data that reveals half of the Chinese loans in Sub-Saharan Africa are missing from sovereign debt records. I find that borrower governments hide loans to avoid violating World Bank debt sustainability thresholds. However, governments hide less debt while under IMF scrutiny so as to reduce the risk that they will be discovered and punished. These findings offer evidence that borrower governments use hidden debt as a strategic tool to pursue fiscal goals. Further, this work reveals the unintended consequences of IFI intervention in less-developed countries, as efforts to ensure fiscal stability increase governments’ incentives to hide debt.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-023-09513-4
“Blessing or curse? Assessing the local impacts of foreign direct investment on conflict in Africa” by Samuel Brazys, Indra de Soysa and Krishna Chaitanya Vadlamannati, Journal of Peace Research 62 (1): 149–165 (2025).
The question of foreign direct investment (FDI) and socio-political development is debated heavily. Liberals believe that FDI brings economic opportunities and/or increased incentives for peace and security among host societies. Critics suggest that FDI is exploitative, leading to conditions that increase the risk of violence. We take a political economy perspective that views FDI as problematic depending on how FDI affects politically powerful local interests. As such, all forms of FDI should meet domestic opposition, but only FDI in the extractive sector, where domestic political actors have little at stake, escalates to major war. Building on recent work which examines this question pertaining to extractive sector FDI, we introduce sub-national, geo-referenced data on FDI in all sectors for evaluating local conflict using combined data from four distinct geo-referenced conflict databases. Using site-period fixed effects with a difference-in-difference like approach, we find that FDI in all sectors increases local conflict. Conflicts induced by most FDI sectors fall short of becoming civil war, except for extractive sector FDI.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433231200928
“Environmental displacement and political instability: Evidence from Africa“, by Angela Chesler, Journal of Peace Research 62 (4): 1076–1094 (2025).
Abstract: Does environmental displacement provoke political instability? Though migration has long been considered an intermediary in the causal path between environmental change and political upheaval, the relationship remains theoretically underdeveloped and evidence has been limited. This article examines the impact of displacement caused by sudden-onset natural hazards on disruptive antigovernment events including armed conflict, protests and violent riots. It leverages the new Environmental Displacement Dataset (EnDis), an original dataset that identifies quantities of human movement in response to six types of sudden-onset natural hazards in Africa from 1990 to 2017, including floods, storms, wildfires, landslides, earthquakes and volcanic activity. The results of the analyses show that while environmental displacement is not associated with civil war onset or protests, it does increase the incidence of attacks by armed non-state actors and violent riots. Importantly, these destabilizing effects occurr primarily (1) in the context of displacement driven by floods and storms, and (2) when levels of displacement are well above average. Collectively, these findings portend deepening security crises and violent political upheaval as climate change drives more frequent episodes of extreme weather and excessive environmental displacement.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433241274979
“Green Pan-Africanism: Normative power and the making of a regional sustainability order” by Kennedy Mbeva, Review of International Studies 51 (5): 766-781 (2025).
This article examines the role of normative power in shaping the global sustainability order. It challenges the prevailing focus on hegemonic leadership and norm diffusion from dominant states, arguing that less powerful states have contributed significantly to the global order by creating regional initiatives tailored to their unique contexts. The article adopts an alternative theoretical framework of norm-governed change, comprising norm-building, institutionalisation, and transformation. Using an illustrative case study of Africa’s regional economic institutions, it employs process-tracing and archival analysis of key policy documents. The study demonstrates how African states have proactively embedded environmental norms within their regional initiatives, while contributing to the global sustainability agenda, exemplifying a form of normative power referred to as ‘Green Pan-Africanism’. This approach broadens the understanding of global sustainability governance, positioning less economically powerful actors as active participants in world-making. The findings highlight the critical role of normative power in advancing global sustainability governance, particularly in addressing complex global challenges such as climate change.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210524000913
“Public Perceptions of Women Peacekeepers in Troop Contributing Countries” by Laura Huber, Foreign Policy Analysis 21 (1): (2025).
Abstract: A belief that women’s representation increases legitimacy informs United Nations peacekeeping policies and the foreign policy agendas of many states. However, we do not know how women’s participation alters support for UN peacekeeping within troop contributing countries. Based on gender stereotypes, the public may assume that women peacekeepers indicate that peacekeeping missions are more legitimate, which may increase support. Yet, if women peacekeepers are harmed, this may decrease support due to the gendered protection norm. Moreover, exposure to women peacekeepers may challenge gender roles. Using survey experiments in India and South Africa, this study finds that women peacekeepers’ deployment or death does not impact support for peacekeeping. However, exposure to women’s casualties increases support for women’s rights to some extent. Further, a survey of representatives of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations reveals gaps between decision-makers’ beliefs about how women peacekeepers impact public support and the experimental findings.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/fpa/orae037
“Strategic misalignment: European security and P/CVE engagement in the Sahel” by Edoardo Baldaro, Mediterranean Politics 30 (3): 639-649 (2025).
Abstract: A key security partner of the region for more than a decade, the European Union today faces growing challenges and the potential failure of its policy towards the Sahel. While the cycle of violence does not appear to be receding, rivals such as Russia – but also Western allies such as Turkey or the Gulf states – are building new partnerships in the region. Contesting the idea that exogenous factors alone explain strategic shortcomings, we explore instead how the evolution of EU initiatives aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) has contributed to strategic misalignments with Sahelian partners. The choice of new international partners by Sahelian states does not primarily follow from ideological reasons, but rather displays tactical ductility and sensitivity to political costs and strategic opportunity. The EU assistance to the emergence of a regional security model, based increasingly on securitization and militarization through ambiguous, at times incoherent and self-referential policies, should be examined to better understand the weakening of political influence in the Sahel.
Links: https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2023.2289795
“It’s not EU, it’s we: ontological stress and French narration of the uprisings in Tunisia” by Lauren Rogers, European Security 34 (2): (2025).
Abstract: The ontological security dynamics of EU foreign policy cooperation and integration have been relatively under-researched. The EU’s efforts to seek ontological security – by consolidating myths, solidifying identifications, and positioning itself on the international crisis – have been discussed by Della Sala, Mitzen, Rumelili, and others, yet one question remains: can the EU provide ontological security? International crises can be an important entry point for studying the dynamics of ontological security within the EU. In this paper, I analyse how France and the European External Action Service (EEAS) narrated the 2011 uprisings in Tunisia. I argue that the EU acts as an ontological security provider in this case by providing a stable network of meaning, narrative, and social space. In the case of Tunisia, I argue that the revelation of the mismatch between its self-perception and perception of others led to significant ontological stress for France and that leaning on the EU provided a way out of this uncertainty. By leaning on the EUs narration of events, France could move past its own stress and still feel secure as part of the EU.
Links: https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2024.2383422
“Complexity, depoliticisation, and African nuclear ordering agency: a meso-level exploration“ by Joelien Pretorius and Tom Vaughan, Cambridge Review of International Affairs 38 (3): 342-362 (2025).
Abstract: The regional nuclear ordering terrain in Africa is increasingly complex, with proliferating and deepening institutional relationships to the institutions of the global nuclear order. Applying a ‘complexity lens’ to this regional institutional apparatus may therefore seem like an intuitive way to understand its role in global nuclear ordering at large, and Africa’s place within it. However, one important concern when thinking about complex multinational regimes is depoliticisation. This has been examined in contexts of global development as well as nuclear order and we show this as a key feature of meso nuclear ordering in Africa. A complexity lens is useful to analyse the characteristics of the African regional institutional terrain. However, a complexity lens can perpetuate this depoliticisation if it does not acknowledge the political thrusts which underlie conceptions of ‘order’ and ‘disorder’.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2024.2356729
“Go with the flow. The fluid nature of African security governance: interpreting security regime configuration(s) in CAR, Burkina Faso, and DRC” by Federico Donelli & Giulio Levorato, Cambridge Review of International Affairs: 38 (4): 506-530 (2025).
Abstract: This article explores the evolving dynamics shaping African security governance. Drawing on the concept of regime complex, the study frames African security governance as a fluid system characterised by overlapping institutions and non-hierarchical interactions. Within it, the research emphasises the role of state actors in strategically selecting the institutional arenas that best align with their interests during security crises by means of forum-shopping activities. The article combines thematic and qualitative content analysis, and through the examination of three paradigmatic cases from the past decade (CAR, Burkina Faso, DRC), demonstrates how institutional overlap and rivalry led to bargaining activities among states, shaping African security regime configurations. This framework diverges from static explanations and sheds light on the unpredictability and constant negotiations that define security governance in the continent. The article enriches the debate on African IR by offering an analytical tool to study the continental security regime complex(es).
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2025.2518128
“The Structural Violence of Imperial Trusteeship in Postcolonial Governmentality” by Christopher Allsobrook, African Studies 84 (3): 208-227 (2025).
The article considers how structural violence in African polities has displaced sovereign agency and responsibility for its harmful effects by extending imperial practices of trusteeship in postcolonial governmentality. It explains how, with liberation, decolonisation and political independence, imperial practices of indirect rule and informal empire – legitimised with reference to trusteeship – have resulted in practices of domination, which are instantiated in structural violence. Trusteeship formally displaces the direct agency of coercive imperial colonisation, first, by disguising it as protection and development assistance, and second, by setting up proxy domestic political agents to stand in for absent imperial sovereignty. I analyse these dynamics with reference to Foucault’s account of governmentality and his theories of power to explain African complicity with empire. I then review and critique Mbembe’s analysis of necropolitics in the postcolony to explain a weakness in his account, which leads him to misconstrue these conflicts in terms of sovereign power, thereby misrepresenting the agency of the consequent African victims of postcolonial structural violence, without pointing to any way out. To correct this misunderstanding, and to identify a basis for emancipatory agency in Africa, I turn to Biko’s critical analysis of Black governmentality under apartheid, which points forward to postcolonial empowerment.
Links: https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2025.2536036
2024
“Ukraine, the 2023 BRICS Summit and South Africa’s Non-Alignment Crisis,” by Janis van der Westhuizen, Contemporary Security Policy, 45 (4): 612–26 (2024).
Abstract: The African National Congress (ANC)’s historic links to the Soviet Union, its interpretation of non-alignment as being about resisting Western imperialism, and its contention that the abrogation by the West of its commitment not to expand further East, shaped the party’s initial response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Whereas certain factions within the ruling ANC interpreted non-alignment in ideological terms, others saw non-alignment rather as a strategy to enhance autonomy. For many South Africans and some government officials this version of non-alignment involved obtaining autonomy through neutrality as a strategy rather than an ideology. These differences of interpretation—coinciding with Pretoria’s role as host of the BRICS Summit where Putin was expected to appear—put South Africa between a rock and a hard place, triggering domestic opposition. However, this dilemma also enabled proponents of non-alignment as a strategy to prevail, culminating in South Africa adopting a more balanced position since June 2023.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2384007
“No Dog in This Fight: Interrogating Ethiopia’s Calculated Neutrality towards the Russia-Ukraine War,” by Sizo Nkala, Contemporary Security Policy, 45 (4): 657–69 (2024).
Abstract: Ethiopia has officially adopted a neutral position in the Russia-Ukraine war in line with the principles of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Despite the centrality of sovereignty and territorial integrity in Ethiopia’s foreign policy, the government has avoided publicly castigating Russia for its assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty. This stance constitutes a sovereignty paradox when viewed in light of Ethiopia’s demonstrated commitment to its own sovereignty which has seen it fight three wars against Italy, Somalia and Eritrea, and the country’s advocacy to institutionalize sovereignty norms at the global level. This contribution argues that Addis Ababa’s reliance on Moscow’s arms supplies and its diplomatic cover in the United Nations Security Council in the context of the Tigrayan conflict compromised its ability to defend the principle of sovereignty.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2400871
“National Security Outweighs Norms and Principles: Egypt’s Foreign Policy towards the Russia-Ukraine War,” by Eman Ragab and Nourhan Sultan, Contemporary Security Policy, 45 (4): 684–97 (2024).
Abstract: This contribution examines Egypt’s foreign policy towards the Russia-Ukraine war through the lens of its long-standing commitment to the principle of equal sovereignty. Despite its historic adherence to and promotion of this principle, Egypt adopted a balancing position, refraining from publicly condemning Russia or fully supporting Ukraine. By comparing Egypt’s stance on the Russia-Ukraine war to its responses in previous cases involving the violation of territorial sovereignty, we demonstrate how Egypt’s balancing position on the war represents a deviation from the sovereignty principle. Our analysis suggests that while Egypt has traditionally viewed the sovereignty principle as a cornerstone of its national security and foreign relations, the adverse impact of the Ukraine war on its national security has compelled a reassessment of this stance.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2024.2406163
“How ad hoc coalitions deinstitutionalize international institutions,” by Malte Brosig and John Karlsrud, International Affairs, 100 (2): 771–789 (2024).
Abstract: As ad hoc coalitions (AHCs) proliferate, particularly on the African continent, two questions crystallize. First, what consequences do they bring about for the existing institutional security landscape? And second, how can the trend of AHCs operating alongside instead of inside international organizations be captured and explored conceptually? To answer these questions, we closely examine the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) fighting Boko Haram and its changing relationship to the African Union. Through the case-study and a review of policy and academic literatures, the article launches the concept of deinstitutionalization and how it can be characterized. We identify three features of deinstitutionalization: AHCs can bypass standard procedures for decision-making processes, whittle down established institutional scripts and shift resource allocations. We detail how the AHCs contribute to changing practices of financing international peace and security operations, with an examination of European Union and United Nations policies and practices. In sum, the article unwraps processes of deinstitutionalization and identifies three forms of rationales for this process: lack of problem-solving capacity, limited adaptability and path dependency.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae009
“Distancing through peacekeeping: global peacekeeping assemblages and the Gambian armed forces,” by Maggie Dwyer, International Affairs, 100 (3): 941–960 (2024).
Abstract: This article contributes to the understanding of incentives for peacekeeping contribution from non-democratic countries through the largely unexplored case of peacekeeping under authoritarian rule in The Gambia. It argues that President Yahya Jammeh (1994–2017) aimed to use peacekeeping to help keep himself in power, fitting a broader global pattern of peacekeeping for regime maintenance. However, the research also demonstrates that leadership’s aims for peacekeeping can be misaligned with the experiences of soldiers. Rather than draw soldiers closer to the regime, the peacekeeping experience involved a distancing from the forces for Gambian soldiers when they returned home. The findings draw on interviews with returned peacekeepers and military decision makers in The Gambia, as well as publications from the armed forces and new public sources of information made available after the 2017 political transition. The article proposes that viewing the deployment experience as a global peacekeeping assemblage helps to understand the more subtle, yet significant, ways in which soldiers’ views can shift following peacekeeping deployments.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae056
“Peacekeeping, policing and politics: assembling the Ghana Armed Forces,” by Peter Albrecht and Fiifi Edu-Afful, International Affairs, 100 (3): 961–980 (2024).
Abstract: While much of the peacekeeping literature fixates on mission deployments, associated challenges and the escalating violent contexts they navigate, this article underscores the transformative reverberations of peacekeeping on troop-contributing countries. Drawing from the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) case, our main focus is to elucidate how international peacekeeping shapes domestic security procedures, but we also point out that they are reciprocally influenced by them. Central to our analysis is the concept of ‘peacekeeping assemblage’ that we introduce to highlight the symbiotic relationship between the GAF’s domestic security roles and its international peacekeeping engagements. Through this lens, we trace the cyclical flow of practices, discourses and experiences as they disassemble and reassemble in varied configurations, emphasizing the fluidity of peacekeeping influences across global landscapes. As discussions on peacekeeping evolve, it becomes paramount to grasp its broader implications—particularly its transformative impact on the personnel from troop-contributing nations and their home societies. This enriched perspective not only deepens our comprehension of the multifaceted nature and global reach of peacekeeping, it also provides policy-makers with insights into the broader ramifications of deployments, especially for those nations from the global South that bear the weight of these missions.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae065
“From imperial power to regional policeman: Ethiopian peacekeeping and the developmental state,” by Harry Verhoeven and Tefera Negash Gebregziabher, International Affairs, 100 (3): 1067–1088 (2024).
Abstract: Why and how do African states become peacekeepers? Through a single-case study, this article accounts for a transformation in peace and security: how Ethiopia became the world’s prime source of blue helmets in the early twenty-first century, having largely shunned peacekeeping in preceding decades. We propose that peacekeeping came to serve as an unexpectedly useful technology to pursue state-building agendas. Historically, regional proxy wars undermined state-building efforts in Ethiopia and mismanagement of ethno-linguistic diversity rendered it vulnerable to externally supported rebellions. In the 2000s, an evolving approach to peacekeeping dovetailed with the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front’s (EPRDF) vision for recalibrating political order domestically and in the Horn of Africa. EPRDF became convinced that changing Ethiopia required changing its surrounding region. Regional intervention as peacekeeping was supported by global powers and helped bind neighbouring states to Ethiopia in new ways. This entailed the crafting of deep political ties in Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan that mitigated historical fears of Ethiopian hegemony and shielded EPRDF state-building from outside destabilization. Moreover, as Ethiopia’s increasingly prominent role in United Nations and African Union missions improved the external environment for the EPRDF developmental state, it also expanded Ethiopian National Defence Force’s role in the political economy, buttressing the party-state’s hegemony.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae062
“Xerox soldiers, YouTube commanders and Twitter brigades: information warfare in eastern Congo,” by Christoph N Vogel, Josaphat Musamba, International Affairs, 100 (4): 1381–1404 (2024).
Abstract: Researching contemporary warfare requires attention to digital connectivity in contexts of crisis and conflict. This article traces the evolution of information warfare with a focus on the digitization, democratization and polarization of conflict-related communication and discourse. We argue that information warfare amplifies with the advent of social media—multiplying the scales for the conduct of hostilities, reducing distance and duration, and democratizing participation—notably in Africa, a continent often considered a trailblazer of digital innovation. Orthodox scholarship, however, tends to focus disproportionately on cases relevant to the global North. Examples include the global ‘war on terror’ or the Russian war against Ukraine. Investigating protracted violent conflict in the global South instead, our analysis fills an important gap in this literature. Through the prism of the African Great Lakes region, the world’s deadliest contemporary war zone, we leverage a counterintuitive perspective of a conflict considered backwards in mainstream analysis. Drawing from long-term field research and digital ethnography, we propose the notion of ‘reciprocal warscapes’, where not only do battlefield events influence the underlying politics of conflict but where, reciprocally, digital warfare increasingly shapes the conduct of war itself.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiae130
2023
“Liberal intervention’s renewed crisis: responding to Russia’s growing influence in Africa”, by Katja Lindskov Jacobsen, Karen Philippa Larsen, International Affairs 99 (1): 259-278 (2023).
Liberal intervention actors often understand Russian engagements in Africa through a great power vacuum logic. This logic sees Russian influence as resulting from Russia filling a vacuum where other (notably liberal) interveners downscale. This article unpacks that vacuum logic and explores its consequences and effects. On the one hand, the vacuum logic is central to representations of Russia as an entirely external ‘other’, which contribute to constituting a ‘liberal’ intervention approach and community. On the other hand, exploring Russia’s presence in the Central African Republic (CAR) and in Mali challenges this representation, as examples of pragmatic co-existence between Russian and liberal actors become visible. The cases of Mali and CAR also illustrate other challenge, including how the vacuum logic dismisses host state agency and renders longstanding critique of liberal intervention seemingly unnecessary, legitimizing a one-directional critique of Russia’s presence in Africa. Failing to appreciate the constitutive and dismissive effects of this great power vacuum logic risks confronting liberal interveners in ways that make them ill-equipped to address critical shortcomings of their own approach. Leaving shortcoming unaddressed may inadvertently provide further grounds for (rather than counter) Russian influence, where Russian actors may take advantage of anti-colonial sentiments and security shortcomings.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiac252
“COVID – 19 travel bans and the reactivation of colonial trauma in Africa”, by Bianca Naude, International Affairs 99 (3): 1109-1126 (2023).
When the Omicron variant of the COVID–19 virus was identified in November 2021, western states responded by immediately imposing a travel ban on African countries in a bid to keep ‘the African virus’ out of their territories. Seen by some as a necessary step to protect western lives, the travel bans caused a visceral reliving among Africans of colonial-era experiences of shame, humiliation and degradation. We know that actors, during times of crisis, exaggerate identity borders between ‘us’ and ‘them’, and we can understand western reactions to the discovery of Omicron against this theoretical backdrop. What is not clear, however, is why the Omicron travel ban caused such a visceral reliving of a past trauma in the African collective. Supported by a qualitative analysis of news media, this research sets out to explain how travel bans imposed by western nations caused a re-traumatization of the African collective, arguing that narratives surrounding ‘Africa’s Omicron virus’ are an extension of the ‘heart of darkness’ ideation that dominated imperial European discourse and practice. Deeper understanding of the many ways in which colonial subjugation persists today, the article argues, can help us better respond to similar future global crises.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad088
“Ideology, grand strategy and the rise and decline of Ethiopia’s regional status” by Goitom Gebreluel, International Affairs 99 (3): 1127-1147 (2023).
Ethiopia transformed from a state on the verge of collapse at the end of the Cold War into one of the world’s fastest-developing economies and a regional power in the Horn of Africa in less than two decades. Since 2018 its economic, military and diplomatic status have, however, become significantly compromised yet again. What explains these significant fluctuations in regional power status? Drawing on policy documents and in-depth interviews with diplomatic, military and political officials from the Horn of Africa this article conducts a comparative analysis of the nature and variation of Ethiopia’s regional power status under the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 2000–2018 and the Prosperity Party (PP) in 2018–2022. The findings illustrate that the fluctuations in regional power were primarily caused by different grand strategies, which in turn reflected the priorities of the EPRDF’s developmental state and the PP’s restorative nationalist ideologies. These grand strategic concepts shaped Ethiopian government policies on key issues like defence doctrine, status-seeking, economic development, and rivalry and alliance management. These policies had a direct and significant impact on Ethiopia’s state capacity, its ability to project military power and its diplomatic influence.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiad111
“Ranger/soldier: patterns of militarizing conservation in Uganda”, by Christopher Day, William Moreto, Riley Ravary, Journal of Eastern African Studies (17): 57-78 (2023).
In recent years, several African states have increasingly militarized their wildlife authorities in response growing threats to protected areas (PAs) that come from a range of actors including hunters, poachers, and armed groups. As park rangers now face the overlapping challenges of conservation, law enforcement, and security in PAs, many are provided with paramilitary training, lethal weapons, and sophisticated equipment, often in conjunction with national armies and international actors. Much of the prevailing literature on “green militarization” has done much to advance our understanding of the potential negative consequences associated with the coercive roles of rangers in PAs, but often sidesteps the social, political, and organizational contexts in which park rangers operate. This article presents an interdisciplinary collaboration between anthropology, criminology, and political science that builds a multi-level analytical framework to examine patterns of militarization of the Uganda Wildlife Authority. It considers the political development of Uganda’s wildlife authorities over the longue durée, the attitudes of individual rangers vis-à-vis their coercive roles as agents of law enforcement, and the organization and behavior of rangers at the sub-national level as they engage communities adjacent to Mount Elgon National Park.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2023.2235660
“Hybrid Regionalism in Africa: Towards a Theory of African Union Interventions”, by Niklas Krösche, African and Asian Studies (1-2): 36-62 (2023).
Since its establishment, the African Union (AU) takes on an active role in regional security matters through different types of interventions. These interventions, however, remain undertheorized. This paper argues that African hybrid regionalism, which combines problem-solving and regime-serving logics of cooperation, shapes the AU’s intervention practice in specific ways. To this end, I first theorize how the parallel presence of these logics shapes AU interventions before probing the empirical validity by studying coercive interventions undertaken by the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) between 2005 and 2021. For this purpose, I employ methods of content analysis to systematically code all publicly available meeting documents issued by the PSC. The results demonstrate that the AU strives to prevent and manage crises through interventions but does so in ways that protect or promote incumbent regimes, either by producing direct benefits for them or, when their actions contribute to the crisis, by avoiding head-on confrontations. This suggests careful balancing of the two main impetuses in African security regionalism, namely solving transnational problems and serving the interests of incumbents.
https://doi.org/10.1163/15692108-12341580
“Shame, Exasperation and Institutional Design: The African Union as an Emotional Security Community”, by John J. Hogar, African and Asian Studies (1-2): 88-112 (2023).
The establishment of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) marked a fundamental reassessment of the African Union’s (AU) approach to security management. Many studies, however, view APSA through the lens of Eurocentric theories that neglect the agency of African actors. In contrast, this article examines how APSA’s design was influenced by collectively-held emotions – defined as moral judgements, based on present expectations and past experiences – amongst African policymakers. Emotional expressions can stabilise security communities by emphasising enmity towards outsiders and amity between insiders, while demanding remorse from individual or sub-groups of members that commit moral trespasses. However, this article theorises that inward-facing shame, when collectively felt by a community as a whole, can fundamentally alter its norms, valued behaviours and identity. This is illustrated by the APSA case study, which highlights the influence of inward-directed shame amongst African leaders over their reactions to humanitarian catastrophes in the 1990s, as well as outward-directed exasperation at the apathy of the international community. In addition to improving understanding of APSA’s establishment and design, this facilitates theory-building based upon African realities, thus making a valuable contribution to the growing field of International Relations scholarship concerned with emotions.
https://doi.org/10.1163/15692108-12341582
“African regionalism, economic nationalism and the contested politics of social purpose: the East African Community and the ‘new developmentalism”, by Peter O’Reilly, Modern African Studies (61): 49-71 (2023).
Over the last decade, a new developmentalism has taken root across Africa, centred on promoting local production and industrialisation. One unintended consequence of this has been the proliferation of economically nationalist policy measures that have increasingly come into tension with the aims of regional integration in Africa. This article sets out to offer insights as to why these tensions are emerging by focusing on the East African Community (EAC) and the growing trend of economic nationalism among its members. Contrary to what rationalist and structuralist accounts might presume, this article argues that this rise in economic nationalism is instead reflective of a weakening of the discursive imperative – or social purpose – that had initially converged various actors around the EAC’s integration agenda when revived in 2000. While drawing from the EAC’s experience, it concludes by highlighting a broader legitimacy dilemma facing African regional organisations within this ‘new developmentalism’.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X22000490
“Meaning making in peacekeeping missions: mandate interpretation and multinational collaboration in the UN mission in Mali”, by Chiara Ruffa, Sebastiaan Rietjens, European Journal of International Relations 29 (1): 53-78 (2023).
Peacekeeping helps to prevent conflict and to protect civilians. But how does it work to achieve those aims? Notwithstanding a growing recognition that peacekeeping mandates alone do not directly determine what actually happens in the field, we still know little about how—once deployed—military units translate an ambiguous mandate into action. In this paper, we focus on one dimension of peacekeepers’ behavior that has become increasingly important, namely, how peacekeepers relate to other military units with whom they are supposed to implement their mandate. We systematically document how mandate interpretations emerge and how they influence peacekeepers’ understanding of other troops they work with. Central to this is peacekeepers’ meaning making, a concept we borrow from the sociological literature, which refers to the common and human process through which individuals give meaning to their surrounding context. Drawing on nearly 120 interviews with peacekeepers deployed to the United Nations (UN) mission in Mali (2014–2019), we identify three different ways by which peacekeepers interpret their mandate and interact with other contingents: Voltaire’s garden; building bridges; and othering. Acknowledging peacekeepers’ agency and the social dimension of peacekeeping has important implications for both scholarly and policy debates.
https://doi.org/10.1177/13540661221104757
“Civilian Agency in Civil War? Militia Formation and Diffusion in Mozambique”, by Corinna Jentzsch, International Studies Review 25 (4),(2023).
While it is recognized by several researchers in the field of conflict and security studies that militias play a significant role in maintaining order and perpetuating violence in civil conflicts, the majority of current academic research primarily concentrates on the reasons behind the establishment of state-initiated militias and the delegation of violence to them (Mitchell et al. 2014; Koren 2017). Little focus has been on how and why civilian communities organize to form militias. Corinna Jentzsch’s book bridges this gap by drawing on research on civilian agency and civilian self-protection in civil war (Jose and Medie 2015; Krause et al. 2023). Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: Why do civilian-based, community-initiated militias emerge at particular times during civil war? What explains the spread of such militias across war-torn communities like Mozambique? Why are people drawn to participate in militias, even at considerable risk to life and limb?
https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viad044
“Rebel Recruitment and Migration: Theory and Evidence From Southern Senegal”, by Max Schaub, Dabiel Auer, Journal of Conflict Resolution 67(6): 1155-1182 (2023).
We investigate whether the threat of recruitment by rebel groups spurs domestic and international migration. The existing literature on wartime displacement has largely focused on potential victims of violence. We argue that alongside potential victims, we should expect to see the out-migration of individuals who are attractive to the rebels as potential recruits. To test this hypothesis, we draw on original survey data collected in the context of the MFDC insurgency in southern Senegal. Causal identification stems from instrumenting recruitment threat with the density of the local forest canopy cover. Analyzing data from 3,200 respondents and over 24,000 family members, we show that individuals who fit the recruitment profiles of rebel groups are more likely to leave and be sent away by their families. Our paper contributes micro-evidence for a mechanism linking violent conflict to migration, which so far has received scant attention, and provides a deeper understanding of the composition of refugee flows.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027221118258
“Protection to Hire: Cooperation through Regional Organizations”, by Christina Cottiero, International Studies Quarterly 67 (4), (2023).
“There is growing evidence that leaders cooperate through regional intergovernmental organizations (RIOs) to address domestic security challenges. What sustains this collaboration? I present a theory of regional cooperation driven by mutual interest in stability and protection for heads of state. RIOs support the development of rules and norms around contributing to regional security and can legitimize pro-government military interventions. Leaders concerned that they may need external support—particularly against members of their own military—cooperate to remain in good standing with co-members. Using original security personnel deployment data for members of four Africa-based RIOs with mutual defense pacts between 1990 and 2017, I show that leaders facing higher coup risk were more likely to deploy personnel to support co-members. I also find evidence for the underlying mechanism—that these leaders contribute because they expect RIO members to reciprocate support in the future. Leaders who contributed more personnel to support co-members, and leaders who contributed more often, were more likely to receive military support from co-members in the future. These findings shed light on the dynamics sustaining regional security cooperation.
https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad082
“The African Union’s Policy Frameworks, Institutional Mechanism and Challenges in Countering Terrorism in Africa”, by Isaac Mensah, Terrorism and Political Violence 35 (6): 1410-1421 (2022).
This article discusses the normative framework and institutional mechanisms for African counterterrorism cooperation. These frameworks have been discussed in sequential order showing how they relate to and complement each other in their efforts to counter terrorism in Africa. The first section focuses on the evolution of the counterterrorism agenda in Africa from 1992 to 1994. The second part discusses the main African Union (AU) counterterrorism legislative framework whereas the third section discusses the institutional mechanisms provided by the 2004 Protocol for the implementation of the provisions of the OAU Convention. Finally, the article discusses the challenges of the AU counterterrorism regime and concludes that the implementation of the AU counterterrorism framework is counterproductive.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2022.2043287
“Effect of Covid-19 Lockdown on Women and Girls in Nigeria: Experiences of Gender-Based Violence, Insecurity and Wellbeing”, by Chinyere Cecilia Okeke, Ifeoma Maureen Obionu, International Journal of Conflict and Violence 17 (2023).
This study aimed to explore the experiences of gender-based violence, insecurity, and health effect of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown among women and girls three to six weeks into lockdown measures in Nigeria. This was a cross-sectional survey carried out in Nigeria among 1,243 women and girls aged between 10 and 79 from April to May 2020. Data was collected using an online web-based survey platform and analyzed using Microsoft Excel and Epi-Info. There was a statistically significant difference in the experience of violence before and during the COVID-19 lockdown among women and young girls in Nigeria (P = 0.002). During the COVID-19 lockdown, respondents experienced physical (74, 30.8%), sexual (120, 50%), and emotional violence (46, 19.2%). Although various forms of insecurity were experienced among the respondents, the most common form experienced was financial insecurity (960, 77%). 738 respondents (58%) feared getting infected by the virus while 662 (52%) had increased anxiety during this period. The findings highlight some negative unforeseen effects of the lockdown measures taken to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus and protect the people. This has important implications for decision-making for future pandemics and the provision of possible mitigating factors.
https://doi.org/10.11576/ijcv-6213
“Light footprint-heavy destabilising impact in Niger: why the Western understandning of remote warfare needs to be reconsidered”, by James Rofers, delina Goxho, International Politics 60 (4): 790-817 (2023).
Remote warfare has become a ‘catch-all’ term, used to describe the so-called ‘light footprint’, ‘low-risk’, and ‘distant’ characteristics of contemporary Western warfighting. Typified by a reliance on military airpower, new weapon technologies, special operations forces, and the support of local partners, proxies, and surrogates, this form of modern warfare has allowed the USA and its Western coalition member to meet national security threats globally, yet withoutr having to endure the heavy cost to their soldier’s lives that defined Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Nevertheless, in this article, we argue that this perception of remote warfare needs reappraising. By analysing the case of Niger, we highlight how the means and mechanisms of remote warfare have now proliferated to a plethora of state actors, with varying ambitions, who combine their ‘light footprint’ to saturate distant zones of conflict and sovereign nations considered to be ‘strategic choke-points’. Although adopted as the blueprint for militarily effective and politically attuned global force deployment by a range of nations, we question the extent to which it is still politically useful, militarily effective, or indeed academically accurate to consider remote warfare as ‘light footprint’ at all.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-021-00362-9
2022
“Involution and Symbiosis: The Self-perpetuating Conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo“, by Arrow Jason Stearns, International Affairs,98(3): 873–891 (2022).
Literature on conflict duration emphasizes the importance of material factors, commitment problems and information asymmetries. Using the case study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and drawing on interviews with 138 sources involved in the conflict, this article advances a theory of conflict duration that highlights the role that interests, identities and the social anchorage of belligerents play. Together, they explain how the conflict in the Congo has become an end in itself for belligerents, carried forward by its own momentum. This article describes the key factors: a proliferation of actors, the rise of a military bourgeoisie, the involution of interests, and the symbiosis of belligerents. A similar argument can be applied to other protracted conflicts in large and weak states. This understanding of conflict has repercussions for policy, as it suggests that there is no inherent link between elite political settlements and stability. It pushes away from the technocratic approach to institution-building to centre the role of the state and political culture in debates over peacebuilding.
https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiac062
“The Impact of (Counter-)terrorism on Public (In)Security in Nigeria: A Vernacular Analysis“, by Akinyemi Oyawale, Security Dialogue, 53(5): 420–437 (2022).
This article examines the impact of (counter-)terrorism on public (in)security in Nigeria through engaging with non-elite understandings of ongoing conflicts in the northeast. Through 41 in-depth interviews carried out during a four-month fieldwork exercise with internally displaced persons in Nigeria, the article contributes to current (counter-)terrorism research on Nigeria and Africa by examining the lived experiences of non-traditional security ‘practitioners’, thus enriching current debates about ‘deepening’ and ‘broadening’ the security concept within critical security studies. The images of security that emerge show that the public in Nigeria adopt two main discursive devices, that is, a story and an interpretative repertoire, to discursively position themselves in relation to Boko Haram, the state and societal discourses and practices. Two discourses are prominent, namely a ‘(counter-)terrorist people’ discourse and a ‘kafir’ or ‘infidel’ discourse, which are constructed around ‘ethnic’ and ‘religious’ identities. This vernacular study of public understandings of (counter-)terrorism in Nigeria achieves three primary objectives: (i) it serves to invigorate debates around the meaning and practice of (in)security in Nigeria, (ii) it expands public (in)security debates on Africa, and (iii) it enriches vernacular research debate through foregrounding the experiences of groups and individuals who experience insecurity in their everyday lives.
https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106211063796
“Explaining the Rise of Jihadism in Africa: The Crucial Case of the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara“, by Luca Raineri, Terrorism and Political Violence, 34 (8): 1632-1646 (2022).
While jihadism appears to be on the rise in Africa, the explanations of violent extremist groups’ capacity to foment jihadi insurgencies and mobilize recruits remain poorly understood. Recent studies have challenged the assumption that the rise of jihadism in Africa is the result of poor governance in areas of limited state reach, highlighting instead the significance of the (perception of) abuses perpetrated by state authorities. Looking at collective action and its structural determinants, it is rather state action—and not the lack thereof—that best explains the capacity of mobilization of jihadi insurgencies in African borderlands. In order to test this theory in a least-likely case, the article explores the genealogy and evolution of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), mobilizing extensive qualitative evidence. Borrowing the analytical framework from civil war studies, it argues that the contentious political dynamics observed in Niger’s borderlands amount to a case of symmetric non-conventional warfare, where abuses perpetrated by state proxies trigger an escalation of homegrown terrorism. It therefore supplies a further specification of the theories investigating the complex interplay between the processes of jihadi mobilization/rebel governance and the practices of counter-terrorism in weak states.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2020.1828078
“A Shrinking Humanitarian Space: Peacekeeping Stabilization Projects and Violence in Mali” by Melanie Sauter, International Peacekeeping, 29 (4): 624-649 (2022).
While the peacekeeping mission in Mali is the deadliest active mission, aid workers are not a prominent target. This is puzzling because humanitarians argue that integrated missions aligning political, military and humanitarian goals impede their security. I argue that the fallacy of integrated peacekeeping missions is that the humanitarian space shrinks due to rising insecurity. This takes place when integrated missions blur the lines between civilian and military action and when they politicize humanitarian aid through biased mandates. I test the argument by comparing new data on peacekeeping stabilization projects with other aid projects, using a matched wake analysis that estimates a difference-in-difference model with sliding spatio-temporal windows. I find that peacekeeping stabilization activities increase violence against civilians on the ground in the short term, which ultimately decreases humanitarian access. Paradoxically, the UN names lack of humanitarian access as a key challenge to protecting civilians, but contributes to the access challenge itself.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2022.2089875
“Cows, Charcoal, and Cocaine: Al-Shabaab’s Criminal Activities in the Horn of Africa“, by Katharine Petrich, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 45 (5-6): 479-500 (2022).
Contrary to historical terrorism scholarship, terrorist groups can strategically diversify into a variety of criminal activities without losing their core ideology or support among the civilian population. This pattern is demonstrated by the evolutionary arc of al-Shabaab, which grew from a small subset of Somalia’s Islamic Courts Union to the most violent political actor in the Horn of Africa, able to conduct terrorist attacks as far afield as Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia. Al-Shabaab has been highly successful in creating a narrative of truth and justice provision while simultaneously exploiting the Somali population and engaging in criminal activity. For the group, criminal activity and crime networks serve two primary purposes: as a funding mechanism and as an avenue for recruitment. Using ethnographic fieldwork and process tracing, I find that the group’s criminal activities throughout the Horn of Africa have made the group significantly more resilient to counterterrorism and counterinsurgency campaigns, extending both its lifespan and operational capability.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2019.1678873
“Regional Integration Alongside Securitisation? The Statebuilding Ambitions of ECOWAS States in Migration Cooperation” by Melissa Mouthaan, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 16 (3): 328-348 (2022).
Why have population monitoring, migration control and surveillance become a significant area of common ground in EU-African migration cooperation? This article examines the securitisation of borders in the West Africa region. It finds that state actors in Senegal and Ghana perceive the technocratic solutions that arise from this cooperation as useful in attaining domestic governance and statebuilding goals, and have presented the ECOWAS regional integration agenda and border securitisation project as congruent. This article proposes that the depoliticised nature of security cooperation, alongside specific features of the domestic policymaking contexts, allows the circumvention of domestic critique of securitisation.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2022.2065160
“Russia’s Return to Africa: A Renewed Challenge to the West?“, by Roger E. Kanet and Dina Moulioukovab, Post-Soviet Affairs 38 (5): 427-439 (2022).
We track the major developments in Soviet-African relations as a prelude to recently revived Russian policy. Russian policy today is much less ideological than that of the Soviet Union and relies more on the establishment of mutually beneficial economic relations. Soviet/Russian policy in Africa over six decades has been motivated by more than by traditional security concerns. In the case of the former, the effort to encourage and speed up a global communist revolution, along with geopolitical competition with the US and the West were central. Now, although geopolitical competition remains an element of Russian policy, the major interest has been markets for exports and access to energy and minerals as part of the goal of re-establishing Russia as a major global power.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1060586X.2022.2034357
“Reassessing Africa’s New Post-Coup Landscape“, by Sebastian Elischer and Benjamin N. Lawrance, African Studies Review 65 (1): 1-7 (2022).
Between 2020 and 2022, sub-Saharan Africa witnessed a substantial increase in the number of military coups. The military interventions in Guinea (September 2021), Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Chad (April 2021), Sudan (April 2019 and October 2021), and Burkina Faso (January 2022) contributed to democratic backsliding and authoritarianism on the continent. In addition, Niger (March 2021) and Guinea Bissau (February 2022) saw failed coup attempts. As a result of these five coups and two failed coup attempts, media reports now ask whether coups are making a comeback in Africa. As the extant literature about civil-military relations in Africa reveals, military coups were never absent. But the recent number and frequency of coups has led to a greater awareness of the threat that militaries pose to civilian rulers from the Atlantic coast (Guinea) to the Red Sea (Sudan).
https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2022.33
“Climate Change, Human Insecurity and Conflict Dynamics in the Lake Chad Region“, by Stanley Ehiane and Philani Moyo, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 57 (8): 1677–1689 (2022).
Climate change impacts on human development have been an issue of global concern in the past few decades. Over the past few years, there is increasing interest on the impacts of climate change on conflict, peace and security in Africa. This paper explores the extent to which climate change impacts and attendant effects on environmental resources are drivers of some of the conflicts in the Lake Chad region, specifically in Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria. It applies the human security theory to establish the interface between climate impacts, human insecurity and local conflicts. We find that reduced access to natural resources such as fertile land, water and pasture is undermining the livelihoods of vulnerable people and communities in the Lake Chad region, which triggered recurrent conflicts.
https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096211063817
Autumn 2021
“Falling Short or Rising above the Fray? Rising Powers and Security Force Assistance to Africa”, by Pedro Seabra, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, published online 24 September 2021.
Abstract: Despite an increase in rising powers providing security force assistance (SFA) to Africa, the expertise and the capabilities made available by these countries remain insufficiently explored. What different solutions, if any, are brought forward? And how does their overall record fare against previous experiences across the continent? By exploring Brazilian and Chinese efforts in Namibia as well as Chinese and Indian overtures towards Mozambique, I argue that rising powers tend to be more invested in a long-term socializing agenda than in immediate capacitation results. This, in turn, justifies their inroads in sectorial niches, as gateways for durable outcomes over time.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2021.1966992
“Operation Safe Corridor Programme and Reintegration of Ex-Boko Haram Fighters in Nigeria”, by Michael I Ugwueze, Elias C Ngwu, Freedom C Onuoha, Journal of Asian and African Studies, published online 11 October 2021.
Abstract: The devastation of lives, livelihood and property in Nigeria caused by over a decade of insurgency by the Boko Haram terrorists is a subject of security, policy, humanitarian and academic concern. Several counter-measures have been adopted by both state and non-state actors to combat the insurgency with limited successes recorded. Consequently, studies have examined several efforts taken by the Nigerian government toward ending the Boko Haram insurgency, including the challenges confronting such efforts. However, Nigeria’s de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration programme for ex-Boko Haram fighters, known as Operation Safe Corridor, has received marginal attention in literature. The Operation Safe Corridor programme which was established in September 2015 is aimed at de-radicalizing, rehabilitating and reintegrating repentant Boko Haram insurgents into society. Using a field survey method involving key informant interviews and focus group discussions as well as documentary reports, this article examines the progress and pitfalls of the Operation Safe Corridor programme. It argues that the failure to mainstream the concerns of local communities both in policy and programming of Operation Safe Corridor severely undermines the prospect of successful and effective reintegration of ex-Boko Haram fighters. The article concludes that if this gap is not addressed, the programme will succeed in terms of the number of ex-combatants graduating from it but will fail in terms of reintegrating the graduating ex-combatants into society. This poses significant risks to both Boko Haram defectors and society at large.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096211047996
“The limitations of international law at the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission and its implications for future conflict”, by John R. Campbell, Journal of Eastern African Studies, published online 15 October 2021.
Abstract: This paper examines the litigation strategies adopted by Eritrea and Ethiopia before the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission convened at The Permanent Commission of Arbitration at The Hague between 2001 and 2009. I pursue insights from the work of Laura Nader concerning how, through binding arbitration, the international community imposes its power on disputing parties as opposed to allowing their competing legal claims to be fairly decided. The claims examined by this paper concern who started the border war and that Ethiopia denationalized ‘Eritrean’ nationals and unlawfully deprived them of their property. I conclude that the PCA’s decisions on Eritrea and Ethiopia were flawed and that its deliberations need to be viewed in a much wider political context; furthermore its decisions contributed to further political instability in the Horn of Africa.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2021.1989136
“What Do We See When Looking at China’s Engagements in Africa? An Analysis of Mainstream Academic Perspectives”, by Jin Ding, Christoph Ratz, Manfred Max Bergman, Journal of Contemporary China, published online 21 August 2021.
Abstract: Since China initiated the Go Out (走出去战略) policy in 1999, its increasing presence and influence in Africa have led to controversial debates among scholars. This article systematizes the different perspectives on the relationship between Africa and China in the contemporary academic literature, and how these debates differ from representations of Africa’s relations with Western actors. Based on Content Configuration Analysis, the results indicate that China in Africa is constructed in relation to Africa and the West. Academic papers tend to impose a Western perspective on China’s involvement with Africa, most notably marked by neo-colonialism and development cooperation. This research highlights the shortcomings, limitations, and risks of this Eurocentric approach, and outlines alternatives to better understand China’s engagement in and with Africa.
Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2021.1966898
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