Giulia Piccolino | Loughborough University (original) (raw)

Articles in English by Giulia Piccolino

Third World Quarterly, 2021

Although stabilisation has been widely debated by the recent literature, there has been relativel... more Although stabilisation has been widely debated by the recent literature, there has been relatively little discussion about how the governments of countries affected by armed violence have themselves engaged with the concept. This article looks at Colombia where, since the election of president Iván Duque in 2018, the government has increasingly emphasised stabilisation. We argue that stabilisation is for the Duque administration a discursive device that allows them to navigate the contradiction between their critical position towards the peace process and the necessity to fulfil internal and international obligations. We also argue that, in spite of its apparent novelty, the concept of stabilisation has long roots in Colombia, going back to the policies of consolidation developed under the presidencies of Álvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos. The analysis of the antecedents of consolidation raises doubts about the appropriateness of Duque's stabilisation for tackling Colombia's post-conflict challenges. The case of Colombia highlights the risk that stabilisation might displace more transformative approaches to peacebuilding and the continuity between contemporary stabilisation and previous interventions.

Africa Spectrum, 2020

Many European universities have introduced procedures for assessing risks to social researchers. ... more Many European universities have introduced procedures for assessing risks to social researchers. These procedures are inspired by occupational and safety health standards, whose logic is driven by the suppression of uncertainty. The rise of risk assessment also fits into a broader global trend of increasingly representing marginalised areas of the world as risky and insecure. While there is a lack of evidence about the actual impact of these procedures on mitigating risks, they are posing an increasing burden on researchers in terms of time, effort, and financial resources, affecting particularly research in and about Africa. Risk assessment can also influence the choice of research methods and reinforce neocolonial patterns of knowledge production by encouraging the transfer of risk to local partners, whose views are rarely integrated in the risk assessment process. This analysis discusses the unintended impact of risk assessment and gives some suggestions for improving processes of preventing risk to social researchers.

Comparative Politics, 2020

How do former armed militants exercise local political power after civil wars end? Building on re... more How do former armed militants exercise local political power after civil wars end? Building on recent advances in the study of "rebel rulers" and local goods provision by armed groups, this article offers a typology of ex-rebel commander authority that emphasizes two dimensions of former militants' power: local-level ties to civilian populations ruled during civil war, and national-level ties to post-conflict state elites. Put together, these dimensions produce four trajectories of ex-rebel authority. These trajectories shape whether and how ex-rebel commanders provide social goods within post-conflict communities and the durability of ex-rebels' local authority over time. We illustrate this typology with qualitative evidence from northern Côte d'Ivoire. The framework yields theoretical insights about local orders after civil war, as well as implications for peacebuilding policies. Word Count 11,489 including endnotes and acknowledgements

International Peacekeeping, 2019

The literature on peacebuilding has increasingly emphasized the importance of the local level – a... more The literature on peacebuilding has increasingly emphasized the importance of the local level – a trend that has been called the local turn. For some researchers, the local turn can improve international peacebuilding interventions, while for others it is an agenda to promote an emancipatory and legitimate peace. There is however mixed evidence backing the argument that addressing local level issues in peacebuilding can make a substantial difference. The local turn reposes on assumptions that appear particularly problematic in an environment characterized by the lack of an elite-level pact, such as a conflict terminated in a military victory. Looking at the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire, which terminated in 2011 with the defeat of former president Laurent Gbagbo, this article highlights how the lack of elite level reconciliation compromises the effectiveness of actions aiming to promote local ‘social cohesion’. It also shows how the discourse and practices of the local turn can be appropriated by semi-authoritarian post-conflict governments in order to depoliticize the peacebuilding process. It concludes that the popularity of the ‘local turn’ among peacebuilders might be due more to the opportunity that it offers to eschew delicate national-level political issues, than to its supposed emancipatory potential.

The Conversation, 2018

The recent “Oxfam sex scandal” – during which some aid workers were accused of paying for sex wit... more The recent “Oxfam sex scandal” – during which some aid workers were accused of paying for sex with young women in vulnerable conditions – has focused almost exclusively on the aid workers and aid organisations involved. But the perspectives and motivations of the young women who were paid for sex with money or material goods have hardly been discussed at all, and the contexts in which they live have been misrepresented and misunderstood.

Politique Africaine, 2017

English abstract "Social Cohesion and the paradoxes of building peace from below in Côte d’Ivoire... more English abstract
"Social Cohesion and the paradoxes of building peace from below in Côte d’Ivoire"
After 2011, the government of Côte d’Ivoire and the international community engaged in actions aimed at supporting peace at the local and community level. These actions appear however problematic in a political environment characterised by the lack of elite-level reconciliation. This article, based on research carried out in Abidjan and in the West of the country, reflects critically on the role that local peacebuilding programmes play within the model of post-conflict reconstruction put forward by the Ouattara government and challenges the assumption that the “local” might constitute a sphere separate from the national level. It highlights how local actors entertain important relationships – material but also symbolic – with national elites.

Résumé en Francais:
Après 2011, le gouvernement de la Côte d’Ivoire et la communauté internationale se sont engagés dans des actions de soutien à la paix au niveau local. Ces actions apparaissent cependant problématiques dans un contexte marqué par l’absence de réconciliation entre les élites nationales. Cet article, basé sur des recherches conduites à Abidjan et dans l’Ouest du pays, offre une réflexion critique sur la place des programmes de soutien à la paix au niveau local dans le modèle de reconstruction post-conflit du gouvernement Ouattara et interroge le grand principe qui les étaye: l’argument selon lequel le « local » constitue une sphère distincte du niveau national, alors même que les acteurs locaux entretiennent des relations importantes – tant matérielles que symboliques – avec les élites nationales.

Following the armed conflict opposing the insurgents of the New Forces (FN) to former president L... more Following the armed conflict opposing the insurgents of the New Forces (FN) to former president Laurent Gbagbo, Côte d’Ivoire has been from 2002 to 2011 a territorially divided country. What are the long-term consequences of a rebel occupation that lasted almost ten years? In our research, which has covered 95 sous-préfectures and neighbourhoods located in the formerly rebel-controlled area, we explore territorial variations in the patterns of rebel governance between 2002 and 2011 and we address the impact of these variations on the post-war influence of the FN at the local level. There are substantial differences between the localities surveyed in the quality of war time governance, as well as in the persistence of FN influence, which are not explained by pre-existing factors such as the political sympathies of the population. In some cases, paradoxically, the contestation of rebel authority seems to have led to governance improvements. Former FN leaders who contributed to these improvements enjoy a certain degree of legitimacy among the local elites and the population. The relationships between political parties and FN also contribute to explain variations among different localities. In conclusion, rebel authority can reproduce itself in different manners in a post-conflict context, with a likely different impact on peace and post-war democratization.

International Peace Institute Global Observatory, 2017

On June 30, 2017, the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reached the end of its ma... more On June 30, 2017, the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) reached the end of its mandate after fourteen years in the country as a multi-dimensional peacekeeping force. International actors and Ivorian national leaders have proclaimed that Côte d’Ivoire—where a violent ethno-regional conflict divided the country into two separate zones between 2002 and 2011—is now stable enough to provide for its own security, and that the return to peace is “irreversible.”...

African Affairs, 2018

In 2011, Côte d’Ivoire emerged from a protracted politico-military crisis not through peace negot... more In 2011, Côte d’Ivoire emerged from a protracted politico-military crisis not through peace negotiations, but thanks to the military defeat of former president Laurent Gbagbo and his associates. Relatively little has been written about the restoration of peace after a decisive military victory and about experiences of post-conflict reconstructions where the international community does not play a leading role. Quantitative scholarship has contended that victory makes restoring peace relatively uncomplicated. In contrast, strategic scholarship has insisted that winning the war does not automatically mean ‘winning the peace’. Victors, especially former insurgents, have to maintain cohesion within the winning coalition and to co-opt or repress residual resistance from the vanquished if they want to consolidate their rule. Moreover, former insurgents often struggle to implement their vision of post-conflict governance. In Côte d’Ivoire, the winning coalition showed risks of implosion after 2011, but has been up to now able to contain them. The Ouattara administration has been able to develop its own vision of post conflict reconstruction, drawing from Ivorian political tradition and the president’s distinctive personality. However, this political project faces future obstacles, particularly in view of Ouattara’s probable retirement from politics in 2020.

While a doctrine of liberal interventionism seems to be gaining acceptance, it remains constraine... more While a doctrine of liberal interventionism seems to be gaining acceptance, it remains constrained by the resilience of state sovereignty and by the resistance of internal elites to externally driven prescriptions. This article looks at Côte d’Ivoire’s tortuous peace process and at the recent post-electoral crisis, exploring how former Ivoirian President Laurent Gbagbo developed strategies for neutralizing the threat that international peacemaking and peacekeeping intervention posed to his rule. It is argued that a particular ideological discourse played a crucial role in Gbagbo’s struggle against ‘global governance’. Such a discourse combined the legalistic exaltation of state sovereignty, a fierce anti-colonial nationalism, and religious overtones in portraying the Ivoirian crisis as a ‘war of second independence’ against a wide range of international enemies. While nationalist rhetoric had been toned down after the conclusion of the Ouagadougou Political Agreement in 2007, the confrontation between Gbagbo and the international community reignited during the 2010–11 post-electoral crisis. A series of new developments – in particular the UN’s certification of elections – rendered Gbagbo’s political tactics and the recourse to nationalism ineffective and contributed to his fall.

Consent has always been a cornerstone of UN peacekeeping. However, consent in peace operations is... more Consent has always been a cornerstone of UN peacekeeping. However, consent in peace operations is often elusive, as recent events in a number of African countries, where the heads of state have explicitly requested the departure or the downsizing of UN missions, have demonstrated. This paper uses evidence from Côte d'Ivoire and Chad to explore the game of conflicting priorities and mutual dependency that underlines UN peacekeeping missions' relations with African host states. It argues that such a dynamic renders consent ambiguous and volatile. African leaders maximise possible benefits that they can obtain from a UN mission, while minimising the potential menace that ‘liberal peace’-style peace-building may pose to their rule. Withdrawal of consent may be facilitated when alternative ‘resources of extraversion’ become available, such as those provided by natural goods or by emerging commercial players. The current situation poses a difficult dilemma to the UN, balancing between keeping peacekeeping missions on the ground with limited or no consent, or leaving and risking breaking its implicit engagements with the civilian population.

Although much has been written about the ideology of Laurent Gbagbo’s Front Populaire Ivoirien in... more Although much has been written about the ideology of Laurent Gbagbo’s Front Populaire Ivoirien in Côte d’Ivoire and its impact on the Ivorian politico-military crisis, little attention has been paid to the ubiquitous role of the law in the discourse and political strategy of the pro-Gbagbo elite. The Ivorian case may provide important insights about the connection between ultranationalist ideology and a legalist, formalist conception of democracy and national sovereignty. The article analyzes the circumstances of the emergence of ‘legalist nationalism’ in Côte d’Ivoire by looking at key episodes of the Ivorian transition between 2002 and 2012. The article discusses the relevance of Pierre Englebert’s concept of ‘legal command’ and the turbulences of democratic transitions in accounting for the prominence of legalism in Ivorian politics. It explores the implications of the Ivorian case for understanding the connection between law and politics in Africa.

Development and Change

A core component of the infrastructural power of the modern state is the capacity to make its pop... more A core component of the infrastructural power of the modern state is the capacity to make its population ‘legible’, through the development of accurate registration and identification mechanisms. In discussing the relationship between democratization and state building, little attention has been paid to the electoral process as a technical process. Yet, the introduction of competitive elections presupposes the registration of voters and thus requires the development of the ‘legibility’ capacities of states. This is particularly evident in sub-Saharan Africa, where democratizing states have been confronted with the weakness of their existing records and forced to develop new mechanisms for registering voters in a reliable manner. This article looks at the experience of the Liste Electorale Permanente Informatisée (the Permanent Electronic Electoral List) in Benin and discusses the potentialities and limits of voter registration as a state-building tool.

Democratization, Feb 2015

A large portion of electoral irregularities in developing countries stem from administrative defi... more A large portion of electoral irregularities in developing countries stem from administrative deficiencies, rather than deliberate fraud. This is particularly evident when it comes to voter registration and identification: the quality of a voter list depends on the existence of effective mechanisms to register and identify citizens and electors, which might not be easily at hand in many developing countries. Democratization in these countries has been accompanied by intense polemics about the quality of the voter rolls and the identification of electors, which have threatened democratic consolidation. Biometric technology has been recently heralded as a possible solution, but its effective potential is disputable. In order to understand how problems with registering and identifying voters have affected democratization, this article reviews the contrasting experiences of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. In Côte d'Ivoire, the problem of the reliability of the voter register has been entangled since the 1990s with the politicization of the citizenship question. As a consequence, compiling an acceptable voter register has proven extremely difficult and cumbersome. In Ghana, an effective electoral administration has been key to overcoming the mistrust of the political parties about the fairness of the voter process.

The literature on peacebuilding dedicates very little space, empirically and theoretically, to co... more The literature on peacebuilding dedicates very little space, empirically and theoretically, to countries that are emerging from a war waged to a decisive outcome. This review article looks at Sri Lanka and Rwanda, two countries where a victorious leadership has led the process of post conflict reconstruction, largely by employing illiberal means. It looks at the effect of decisive war on statebuilding and at the role of local agency and of illiberal practices in a post-victory context. It concludes assessing the global significance and long-term sustainability of post victory illiberal statebuilding.

Fiscal sociology has alleged the existence of a mutually reinforcing effect between the emergence... more Fiscal sociology has alleged the existence of a mutually reinforcing effect between the emergence of representative government and effective taxation. This paper looks at Benin, a low income country that has successfully democratised in the early 1990s. It finds that Benin appears to have reinforced its extractive capacities since democratization. However, the effect of democratization has been indirect, while the influence of the International Financial Institutions (IFI) and the size of the country's informal sector have played a more direct role. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that effective taxation is based on a quasi-consensual relationship between the state and the taxpayers finds some confirmation.

The 2015 presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire was seen as an important test for the country giv... more The 2015 presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire was seen as an important test for the country given the 2010 post-election crisis. Although the 2015 polls were peaceful, they were affected by problems not new to Côte d’Ivoire: lack of competition due to non-participation of major political actors, low voter turnout, mistrust in electoral institutions. The unpreparedness of the Commission Electorale Indépendante (CEI) was also problematic, especially with respect to the revision of the voter list. Due to the boycott of partisans of former president Laurent Gbagbo and because of the support of the Rassemblement des Houphouëtistes pour la Démocratie et la Paix (RHDP), President Alassane Ouattara’s reelection was essentially a given from the start. With the ruling coalition firmly in control, Côte d’Ivoire appears stable. However, the country’s democratic deficit might lead to renewed violence once the RHDP has to pick Ouattara’s successor.

""Consent has always been a cornerstone of UN peacekeeping. However, consent in peace operations ... more ""Consent has always been a cornerstone of UN peacekeeping. However, consent in peace operations is often elusive, as recent events in a number of African countries, where the heads of state have explicitly requested the departure or the downsizing of UN missions, have demonstrated. This paper uses evidence from Coˆte d’Ivoire and Chad to explore the game of conflicting priorities and mutual dependency that underlines UN peacekeeping missions’ relations with African host states. It argues that such a dynamic renders consent ambiguous and volatile. African leaders maximise possible benefits that they can obtain from a UN mission, while minimising the potential menace that ‘liberal peace’-style peacebuilding may pose to their rule.
Withdrawal of consent may be facilitated when alternative ‘resources of extraversion’ become available, such as those provided by natural goods or by emerging commercial players. The current situation poses a difficult dilemma to the UN, balancing between keeping peacekeeping missions on the ground with limited or no consent, or leaving and risking breaking its implicit engagements with the civilian population.""

Articles in Italian by Giulia Piccolino

The essay deals with the relationships between Italy and the Congo Free State, a ‘personally owne... more The essay deals with the relationships between Italy and the Congo Free State, a ‘personally owned colony’ of Leopold II of Belgium, in the years 1884-1908.
The Congo Free State was a unique case of a ‘private’ European colony at the end of the XIX century. Its origins are briefly summarised, together with the accusations which eventually
overwhelmed Leopold II, starting from the humanitarian campaign launched by the British journalist Edmund Dene Morel. The paper also examines the largely neglected role of Italian citizens and government in the 'Congo question’, The Congo State and its associated private companies engaged a significant number of civil and military officials of Italian origin. The essay deals particularly with a group of officers of the Italian army, sent to the Congo in 1903 for a three-years-term, within an agreement with the Italian government which also foresaw the settlement of Italian colonists in the interior of the country. Leopold II organised an intense propaganda campaign in Italy with the aim of obtaining a favourable outcome to the agreement. In the meantime, the Italian government displayed a relatively neutral attitude, concerned as it was mainly with pursuing a policy of Italian ‘presence’ in Central Africa.

Third World Quarterly, 2021

Africa Spectrum, 2020

Comparative Politics, 2020

International Peacekeeping, 2019

The Conversation, 2018

Politique Africaine, 2017

International Peace Institute Global Observatory, 2017

African Affairs, 2018

Development and Change

Democratization, Feb 2015

This paper aims at reopening and reframing the debate over a well known episode of French involve... more This paper aims at reopening and reframing the debate over a well known episode of French involvement in Africa at the beginning of the new millennium: French military intervention and peacemaking in Cote d’Ivoire. On the basis of in depth interviews with French diplomats, policy-makers, militaries and journalists, it analyses the rationale that has underpinned the launch of mission Licorne and the French peacemaking and peacebuilding strategy from the deployment of Licorne to the Linas-Marcoussis negotiations.
The author argues, on the one hand, that the outcome of French intervention in the Ivorian crisis has been mixed and has resulted in conflict freezing rather than conflict resolution. On the other, she challenges mainstream French and Ivorian views over the significance of the involvement of France in the Ivorian crisis. She argues that French intervention cannot be properly understood as an effort at reinventing French African policy, neither as a purely post-colonialist enterprise. Making reference to David Chadler’s critique of Western humanitarian intervention, she observes that the humanitarian discourse has served as a cover not for postcolonial greed but for the lack of a proper political project and of confidence in their own legitimacy by French policy-makers.

This second essay on the relations between Leopold II of Belgium’s Congo Free State and Italy dea... more This second essay on the relations between Leopold II of Belgium’s Congo Free State and Italy deals with the mission that Eduardo Baccari, a medical-captain of the Italian Navy and an expert of colonial affairs, carried out in the years 1903-1904 in order to verify the feasibility of the scheme proposed to the Italian government by the Congo administration. According to this project, Italian colonists would be allowed to settle on the shores of the Kivu lake, their installation fees being covered by the Congo administration itself. Baccari was given the additional tasks to investigate the grievances advanced by Italian officers sent to the Congo and, more generally, to report on the accuses brought to Leopold II’s administration by several humanitarian groups, mainly English-based. Having started his journey with a neutral and unprejudiced attitude, Baccari progressively gathered a series of impressive testimonies about abuses carried by agents of the State in order to collect precious natural products or to quell local revolts. In the interior of the country he had eventually the occasion to watch personally atrocities and mistreatments.
This led him not only to express the opinion that the Kivu project should be rejected by Italian Government, as it eventually was, but even to ask the withdrawal of Italian officers.
However Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Tommaso Tittoni preferred to hide Baccari’s reports from the public eye and to handle the matter avoiding direct clashes with the Congo administration. It was the press, including the most important Italian newspaper, Il Corriere della Sera, which finally raised the scandal. Even if the consequent decisions taken by the Italian government were late and weak, relations with the Congo Free State remained definitively compromised.
As for Eduardo Baccari, after having published a remarkable book on his experience in Congo, he left the Navy and dedicated himself fully to colonial policy. However his carrier was to be blocked by the raise of fascism and he was forced to retire to private life. He died in 1952. His reports about the Congo remain quite unknown and his figure has been largely misrepresented by historiography

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of peacekeeping in Africa. Recent events in the De... more This book provides a comprehensive analysis of peacekeeping in Africa.

Recent events in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mali remind us that violence remains endemic and continues to hamper the institutional, social and economic development of the African continent. Over the years, an increasing number of actors have become involved in the effort to bring peace to Africa. The United Nations (UN) has been joined by regional organisations, most prominently the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), and by sub-regional organizations like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Meanwhile, traditional and emerging powers have regained an interest in Africa and, as a consequence, in peacekeeping.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the trends and challenges of international peacekeeping in Africa, with a focus on the recent expansion of actors and missions. Drawing upon contributions from a range of key thinkers in the field, Peacekeeping in Africa concentrates on the most significant and emerging actors, the various types of missions, and the main operational theatres, thus assessing the evolution of the African security architecture and how it impacts on peace operations.

This book will be of much interest to students of peacekeeping and peace operations, African politics, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR.

Antologia di analisi approfondite da diversi ambiti disciplinari per comprendere come s'articoli ... more Antologia di analisi approfondite da diversi ambiti disciplinari per comprendere come s'articoli l'accesso a potere, risorse e lavoro nel quadro dei cambiamenti post-anni '90 che hanno investito i meccanismi politici, sociali ed economici dell'Africa subsahariana

L'Italia è il secondo paese più europeista d'Europa, ma anche quello che conosce meno le istituzi... more L'Italia è il secondo paese più europeista d'Europa, ma anche quello che conosce meno le istituzioni europee e il 60045 circa delle decisioni approvate dal Parlamento italiano avviene in seguito a direttive europee. Nove sono le voci all'interno del volume, che con le loro tesi si sono proposte di far capire al lettore chi ci governa e come ci governa. Alcuni dei temi trattati: funzionamento dell'UE; legami interni e rapporti con le nazioni extra-europee - Russia, Regno Unito, USA, Turchia; politica militare; le frontiere, i problemi e la legislazione in merito all'immigrazione.

Third World Quarterly, 2021

Since decolonization, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the birth of a large number of regional initiat... more Since decolonization, Sub-Saharan Africa has seen the birth of a large number of regional initiatives whose institutional set up and high integration ambitions are inspired by the model of the European Union (EU). West Africa’s sub-regional organizations: the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS) and the Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), are clear examples of this pattern of diffusion. However, African regionalism is often decried as ineffective, in particular in the domain of trade and economic cooperation. Two arguments have been usually put forward in order to explain the simultaneous adoption of the EU model of integration in Africa and its mixed outcomes: constructivist scholars have emphasized normative tensions, while area studies specialists have focused on the neo-patrimonial nature of African politics. Looking at West Africa as a case study, this article argues that both perspectives have limits. Structural constraints and sociological institutionalist theory appear more appropriate in order to account for the mixed record of regionalism in Africa. It is argued that these challenges seem to be less specifically ‘African’ than usually thought.

My post for the Monkey Cage on the use of biometrics in elections, in Nigeria and beyond.

Military victory has been for a long time the dominant form of civil war termination and some sch... more Military victory has been for a long time the dominant form of civil war termination and some scholars have suggested that it might be again on the rise. However, the ‘victor’s peace’ as an alternative model of peacebuilding and post conflict reconstruction with respect to the liberal peace has been little investigated. Within the framework of the literature on war termination, a number of scholars have advanced the hypothesis that victory might offer better chances for sustainable peace than negotiated settlements, but their argument remains controversial.
Drawing from existing empirical evidence on post-conflict societies that have experienced a military victory and on a new literature on illiberal and autonomous peacebuilding, this article looks at the particular characteristics of the peace being built in the aftermath of victory and at the implications of the victor’s peace for liberal peacebuilding. With a view to stimulate further inquiry, it sets forth hypothesis about the link between victory and illiberal peacebuilding and victory and post-conflict statebuilding.

Regional integration in Sub-Saharan Africa has drawn heavily from a one-sided interpretation of t... more Regional integration in Sub-Saharan Africa has drawn heavily from a one-sided interpretation of the European Union model of ‘integration from above’, especially in terms of institutional framework and of expectations about the evolution and gains of the integration process. The EU itself has encouraged the adoption of such a model, both by providing material resources and by influencing regional organizations through political dialogue. Yet, the transfer of norms and institutions to a very different social and economic context poses a series of problems that have been insufficiently acknowledged. This paper uses historical literature and field research conducted at the respective headquarters in Abuja and Ouagadougou to retrace the influence of the EU model of integration on the two major West African institutions, the Economic Community of the West African States (ECOWAS) and the Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA). Both direct and indirect pathways of EU influence can be detected. The paper argue that the logic of institutional mimicry followed by ECOWAS and UEMOA has led to pre-mature load bearing and exacerbated the ‘capability trap’ that these organizations are facing. However, it also contends, in contrast to pessimist views of African regionalism advanced by area specialists, that the two organizations are not irrelevant and might have a positive role to play. The crisis of the EU model provides opportunities for rethinking the West African model of regionalism, devising more original solutions adapted to the local context.

Drawing on the history of statebuilding in Western Europe, fiscal sociology has proposed the exis... more Drawing on the history of statebuilding in Western Europe, fiscal sociology has proposed the existence of a mutually reinforcing effect between the emergence of representative government and effective taxation. This paper looks at the case of Benin, a low‐income West African country that underwent a fairly successful democratization process in the early 1990s. It finds, in contrast to previous studies that have emphasized dependency on aid rents, that Benin appears to have reinforced its extractive capacities since democratization. However, the effect of democratization has been largely indirect, while other factors, such as the influence of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and the size of the country’s informal sector, have played a more direct role in encouraging or inhibiting tax extraction. Nevertheless, the hypothesis that effective taxation depends on a quasiconsensual relationship between government and taxpayers finds some confirmation in the Beninese case.

A reliable voter list is a necessary precondition for free and fair elections. However, many deve... more A reliable voter list is a necessary precondition for free and fair elections. However, many developing countries have persistent difficulties in registering their electors and establishing their identity. Following polemics about the quality of existing voter rolls, these countries have recently introduced reforms to their voter registration systems, such as the adoption of voter IDs and of biometric technology. Looking at three West African countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana – this paper argues that the impact of these reforms has been mixed, that economic costs have not always been justified and that sophisticated technology does not guarantee the success and acceptance of voter registration.

Regional conflicts are a core global challenge in that they threaten international peace and affe... more Regional conflicts are a core global challenge in that they threaten international peace and affect global actors either because of economic and strategic interests or because of challenges to normative claims. The European Union (EU) has been seen as a normative power able to help transform such conflicts. A prominent strategy in this has been the promotion of regional integration through various forms of support for regional integration projects and strategies, from the Andean Community to the African Union. RegioConf aims at assessing this strategy by comparing EU involvement in different cases in the Mediterranean, Africa, Central and South America and East Asia.
This paper focuses on West Africa. The central question in this context is: To what extent, and under which conditions, does the promotion of regional integration in West Africa contribute to the positive transformation of regional conflicts?

The European Union has been seen as a new type of 'normative power', aiming at diffusing its valu... more The European Union has been seen as a new type of 'normative power', aiming at diffusing its values through its external policy. The EU influence in Sub-Saharan Africa is particularly worth noting. The EU is historically a leading partner for Africa and it presents itself to the African continent as a successful model of conflict transformation by regional integration. The European institutions have spent a considerable amount of material resources and diplomatic efforts for promoting regionalism in Africa and for encouraging the transition of African regional organizations from a security culture of 'non interference' to one of 'non indifference'. Yet, the expectation that the promotion of regional integration will contribute to the resolution of regional conflicts in Africa faces two sets of challenges.
First, the historical, political and economic context of Africa may not be conducive to the success of regional cooperation as a conflict resolution strategy. Second, the effectiveness and the coherence of the EU's promotion of regional integration and regional conflict resolution in Africa are disputed. This paper presents REGIOCONF, a new collective research project aiming at investigating systematically the EU's engagement in addressing regional conflicts worldwide, particularly by promoting regional
integration. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the project will address the cases of Sahel and the Great Lakes region

The consent of the warring parties and of the state authorities of the host country has always be... more The consent of the warring parties and of the state authorities of the host country has always been a prerequisite for starting a UN operation and a key principle of the UN doctrine. To some extent, it is the principle of consent which distinguishes peacekeeping from other forms of multilateral intervention and ensures the compatibility between peacekeeping and the rule of state sovereignty. However, consent is often uncertain and fragile. In recent years a number of UN operations have experienced serious difficulties with state authorities, as examples from Chad, the DRC, Côte d’Ivoire, Darfur and Eritrea show. The fragility of consent poses a very significant challenge to the UN and, more broadly, to the international efforts to help post-conflict countries. The UN doctrine stresses that consent is not given or withdrawn once and for all but can be managed by understanding it in the framework of a political process. It also establishes a distinction between consent at the “strategic” and at the “tactical” level and considers that peacekeepers can operate without the latter but not the former.
However, the UN doctrine fails to respond to many of the dilemmas that practitioners meet in the field and downplays the tension between consent and other principles supported by UN peacekeeping (such as protection of civilians or support for democratization). This paper conceptualizes state consent as the result of a bargaining process between international peacekeepers and host state authorities and tries to account for its volatility. It assumes that state authorities and warring parties have incentives in faking consent. State authorities may accept the deployment of UN peacekeepers because they expect them to provide material and non-material resources, such as security, legitimacy and economic goods. However, they will also try to avoid that the presence of UN peacekeepers affect their interests and may especially resist demands for the opening of political competition and democratization. UN peacekeepers are navigating between the liberal ideas guiding peacekeeping interventions and host state consent, but the degree to which personal incentives impact on their choices is under-researched. The manipulation of consent is particularly evident in Africa, where states share a history of political and economic extraversion and of often ineffective international interventionism. The paper discusses recent African cases and explores the options that are available to the UN when consent deteriorates.

European foreign affairs review, 2010

The present article analyses the European Union's (EU's) response to the multiple crises that hav... more The present article analyses the European Union's (EU's) response to the multiple crises that have affected the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), taking as conventional starting and ending points the 'Kivu war' of 1996 and the 2006 elections. The article acknowledges the progress made by the EU, from a 'virtual policy' to a comprehensive approach toward the Congo crisis. However, it is also argued that the focus on 'testing' the new mechanisms for EU intervention bears the risk of overlooking their actual impact on the resolution of the crisis. A series of substantial weaknesses in the EU's approach toward the DRC are identifi ed: the lack of coherence between development aid and crisis management; the diffi culty in addressing the transnational dimension of the crisis; and the focus on a few short-term objectives, such as elections, at the expenses of other crucial priorities. * PhD candidate, University of Florence. 1 D. Fabre, 'L'Union Européenne face à la crise rwandaise', Afrique contemporaine 178 (1996). Review 15: 115-136, 2010.

As Pierre Englebert (2009) notices, the genesis of African sovereignty is at the basis of the cen... more As Pierre Englebert (2009) notices, the genesis of African sovereignty is at the basis of the centrality of what he calls ‘legal command’ in African politics. As the state is defined on the basis of its ‘legality rather than effectiveness’ the law provides opportunities for domination even in conditions of state weakness or failure. The ‘legally sovereign’ nature of the African state has also another implication: nationalism is expressed through attachment to the state as a juridical entity. This paper aims at exploring the connection between law, sovereignty and nationalism by looking at the discourse of former President Laurent Gbagbo and his supporters in crisis-affected Côte d’Ivoire between 2002 and 2011. I aim at analyzing how and why the Constitution and the legal framework of Côte d’Ivoire occupied a central role both in the nationalist ideology and in the political strategy of the pro-Gbagbo elite in the course of this period. In Western political though, Constitutionalism and ‘rule of law’ are associated with political liberalism. The Ivorian experience however provides a different disturbing lesson, revealing how the law and in particular the Constitution can become instruments of domination.

Negotiations and power-sharing arrangements constitute the preconditions for the model of liberal... more Negotiations and power-sharing arrangements constitute the preconditions for the model of liberal peacebuilding and statebuilding embraced by the international community in Africa. An implicit assumption of such a model is that, in order to achieve lasting peace, a political order where all the parties can feel that they have a stake shall be built. However, a different model of reconstruction stands out: post-military victory peacebuilding/statebuilding, managed by a political elite that needs not to make compromises with its former enemy, often in a context of limited international involvement. Such a model is still relatively under-explored, although Jeremy Weinstein (2005) and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (2011) provides opposite perspectives under the labels of “autonomous recovery” and “illiberal peacebuilding”. This paper aims at exploring post-victory peacebuilding by looking at the reconstruction process animated by the Alassane Ouattara regime in post-2011 Côte d’Ivoire. The paper discusses the advantages and shortcomings of post-2011 peacebuilding by comparing it to previous peacemaking and peacebuilding efforts carried in a context of internationally-sponsored peace agreements and power-sharing.

This briefing analyzes the controversial 2010 Ivorian election and the events that have followed ... more This briefing analyzes the controversial 2010 Ivorian election and the events that have followed it. Instead of marking the return of the country to normalcy after almost a decade of political instability, the elections spurred a renewed confrontation between incumbent president Gbagbo and his rival and internationally-recognized winner of the elections Alassane Dramane Ouattara. The UN were dragged into the confrontation, because of the role of certifying the elections attributed to the UN SRSG, as well as France, the former colonial master. Both were targeted by the Gbagbo regime, which turned international isolation into a political resource, using an aggressive rhetoric of national liberation. After his military victory, Ouattara finds himself with the difficult task of reconciliating a country deeply divided: a task that is hardened by the fact that, while widespread political repression was carried by the Gbagbo regime, his own troops were also involved in acts of extreme violence.

While a doctrine of liberal interventionism in conflict affected countries seems to gain momentum... more While a doctrine of liberal interventionism in conflict affected countries seems to gain momentum, it finds a limit in the resilience of State sovereignty and in the resistance of internal elites to externally driven prescriptions. African heads of State increasingly challenges the “liberal peace”, opposing their views on State sovereignty to the cosmopolitanism that the liberal peace doctrine implies. The peace process in Ivory Coast (2003 to now) exemplifies well this trend. Using political tactics and a vocal rhetoric of “second independence”, president Gbagbo has managed to reduce the margin of manoeuvre of international mediators and external donors. The Ouagadougou agreement of 2007 has been presented as an “internal solution” to the Ivorian crisis and external actors have been invited to accept the terms proposed by the Ivorian political élite and “accompany” financially and technically the peace process. If the agreement has succeeded in appeasing political tension in the short-term, it has left the interest of powerful actors untouched and its limits in securing sustainable peace have been dramatically highlighted by the recent presidential elections. The elections seem to be opening a new phase in the involvement of the international community in Cote d’Ivoire. The relationships between Gbagbo and external actors have become again antagonistic and the issue of national sovereignty and its limits are again at the centre of the stage.

The belief that all conflicts, including internal conflicts, can be resolved by promoting a negot... more The belief that all conflicts, including internal conflicts, can be resolved by promoting a negotiated settlement consciously or unconsciously underpins the strategy of international peacemakers (Stedman 1996; Clapham 1998; Tull and Mehler 2005). In case of failure, their usual reaction is to “try again”. In Côte d’Ivoire, an economically important West African country that is de facto divided in two after an armed rebellion took hold of its Northern part in 2002, this inclination has resulted in the conclusion of not less than four internationally negotiated agreements. However, peace negotiations have only partially succeeded in solving the crisis that the country experiences.
This paper compares three different efforts to achieve a negotiated settlement of the politico-military crisis in Côte d’Ivoire through international mediation: the French-sponsored Linas-Marcoussis agreement, the South African mediation and the so-called direct dialogue, mediated by Burkina Faso. My paper makes reference to Christopher Clapham’s (1996) observation that international peacemaking and peacekeeping can be better explored by considering the point of view of the conflicting parties. It argues that the multiplication of different cycles of negotiations in Côte d’Ivoire and the introduction of new mediators in the Ivorian crisis have become a subtle strategy to weaken and marginalize the international community and revert an unfavourable power-relation on the part of the Ivorian camp présidentiel (presidential coalition).

This report deals with the international workshop "The Legacy of Armed Conflicts: Southern Africa... more This report deals with the international workshop "The Legacy of Armed Conflicts: Southern African and Comparative Perspectives," held on 28–29 July 2016 at the University of Pretoria. The workshop facilitated discussions and exchanges between regional and comparative experts and focused on three themes: the relationship between peace processes and long-term peacebuilding, the role of former armed actors in post-conflict societies, and the persistence of violence after conflict. The importance of legitimacy for peacebuilding was often evoked as was the necessity to consider the continuity between armed conflict and other forms of violent and non-violent social action.

Strategic Review for Southern Africa, Vol 35, No 2

Syllabus prepared for the Master's degree in Political Science – Public Economics, Law and Politi... more Syllabus prepared for the Master's degree in Political Science – Public Economics, Law and Politics, Leuphana University Lüneburg
Dr Giulia Piccolino, German Institute of Global and Area Studies

Libye, Somalie, Éthiopie : ce sont les pays auxquels on se réfère lorsqu’on aborde les relatio... more Libye, Somalie, Éthiopie : ce sont les pays auxquels on se réfère lorsqu’on aborde les relations entre l’Italie et l’Afrique. Sortant des sentiers battus, cet ouvrage invite le lecteur à explorer les multiples liens qui se sont noués entre la République italienne et la République Démocratique du Congo. Ils vont à la rencontre d’écrivains, de missionnaires et d’explorateurs, mais aussi de cinéastes italiens qui, par leur œuvre, produite en particulier au xixe et au xxe siècle, offrent du Congo une image captivante.
D’Eduardo Baccari à Pier Paolo Pasolini, cette invitation au voyage s’achève en découverte de l’Italie par des auteurs congolais comme Paul Bakolo Ngoi, qui en ont fait leur nouvelle patrie.