Category: Vol. 3 (II)

Gunning the Leviathans: Undying Presidencies, Term Limits, Changing Political Culture and the Mortification of Dire Political Transition in Africa

Gunning the Leviathans: Undying Presidencies, Term Limits, Changing Political Culture and the Mortification of Dire Political Transition in Africa

Posted by | Apr 28, 2020 |

The focal narrative in the literature on government and politics in Africa is sheathed with the credence that the region has been governed by tyrants, despotic regimes and political intrigues, abetting political transitions in belligerent awareness as a result. This paper attempts to make a significant departure from this account by interrogating the emerging political orders that deconstruct this primordial discourse on the African socio-political landscape. It argues that the locus of political transition has shifted from a long established political culture to a more mature democratic orientation. It demonstrates that some African nations have evolved from political pettiness to political adolescence. It concludes that the recent political transitions that took place in some African nations represent a different type of regime change that marks a momentous departure from the unwavering political culture previously present in Africa.

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Fragility and the State: Current Debates and Historical Perspectives

Fragility and the State: Current Debates and Historical Perspectives

Posted by | Apr 28, 2020 |

This paper examines fragile states from a historical and policy-focused context. It analyses both fragility and the state as complex phenomena with specific history and logic. International debates are introduced, from the ‘failed states’ narrative to more sophisticated frameworks on fragile contexts. Modern state-building is placed in a historical perspective and analysed through a political economy framework, while rents and patronage are explained as standard forms of social organization. Modern state-building and economic development is analysed, together with the impact of colonialism, further exposing the features of fragile states and placing them within the context of the contemporary world economy, making fragility appear as a dysfunctional form of governance.

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The Great Lakes Region (GLR) Security Complex: Lessons for the African Solutions for Peace and Security (AfSol) Approach

The Great Lakes Region (GLR) Security Complex: Lessons for the African Solutions for Peace and Security (AfSol) Approach

Posted by | Apr 28, 2020 |

The Great Lakes Region (GLR) appears to be an arena of intractable conflicts that have continued to evade durable solutions or have resisted mitigating interventions. To this end, the GLR poses challenges to AfSol’s commitment to building sustainable peace on the continent. This paper applies the Regional Security Complex Theory to establish a pattern of security interdependence in order to discern lessons for the AfSol approach. This will be done using a minimalist definition of the GLR that focuses on four states: Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. Findings show that the current state of security distress is a result of various structural and proximate factors such as colonial impact, political culture, ethnicity and weak state systems that take advantage of geographical proximity to cause the spread of conflicts and insecurity through conditions of clustering, contagion/diffusion and connectedness. The multiplicity of actors in the four states and the various rebel movements in each define the dynamics of security, giving rise to a regional insecurity complex more so than a security complex. The existence of AfSol, however, continues to offer some modicum of hope if lessons are to be learnt from the experience of the four countries. The lessons are that i) common factors take advantage of geographical proximity to socialise the GLR states into a region of insecurity; ii) the GLR is a conflict formation security complex; iii) ethnicity is instrumentalized by political elites; iv) the rebel problem is linked to state actors; and v) the old agenda for security dominates the GLR security complex.

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The Effectiveness of Peace-building Efforts and the Legitimacy of Actors: An Exegesis and Reflection of “The Local” in Myanmar and Nigeria

The Effectiveness of Peace-building Efforts and the Legitimacy of Actors: An Exegesis and Reflection of “The Local” in Myanmar and Nigeria

Posted by | Apr 28, 2020 |

This paper contributes to the growing debate within the peace-building literature on who and what constitutes “the local”. It explores the challenges associated with attempts to arrive at a universal framing for the particular groups that make up ‘the local’. Scholars, practitioners and policy makers have developed different peace-building interventions that have focused on improving and sustaining peace among different populations. However, evidences continue to show that these actions target specific groups who are identified through processes of mapping, specifically with reference to their relevance, impacts and abilities to enforce and influence long-term changes within societies. These actors leverage and consistently engage the population to strengthen the effectiveness of diverse peace-building efforts. Drawing on examples from Myanmar and Nigeria, this paper conceptualizes “the local” as a product of individual constructions and experiences, particularly by demonstrating a clear understanding of conflict zones and how different actors influence actions and inactions that affect the overall process of peace-building.

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Agentic Governance in Africa: Managing the Tension between Dependence and Self-Reliance

Agentic Governance in Africa: Managing the Tension between Dependence and Self-Reliance

Posted by | Apr 28, 2020 |

Several governance discourses on Africa are fraught with lamentations about how Africa is being manipulated to remain dependent on the Global North (and more recently, parts of the Global East). This viewpoint is complemented by assertions on why Africa should instead isolate itself in order to be self-reliant, giving no room for external influence. This stands in counterpose to the globalist prescription which argues that Africa’s development lies only in its greater integration into the global political economy, resulting in various forms of dependence on and interdependence with other systems outside Africa. Seen from some perspectives, each of these positions is an extreme option and the pull towards either of them results in tension. But how practical and sustainable is isolationism in the massively globalized and almost technologically borderless 21st century in which several existential challenges are shared across continents? Additionally, how best can Africa manage the fears of vulnerability and the need for interdependence in the same century of increased options for the continent’s self-reliance? This paper demonstrates how more agency in governance is necessary for a careful management of the tension between dependence and self-reliance in 21st century Africa. It argues that the degree of dependence, vulnerability and self-reliance of Africa varies from one sector to another, with the implication that to manage the perceived tension, Africa needs to (i) maximize obvious opportunities of self-reliance without waiting on external assistance; (ii) accept its vulnerability, weakness and dependence when those are the only available options; and (iii) leverage available opportunities of interdependence and partnership.

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