Review Contending hegemony and the new security systems in Africa (original) (raw)
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Contending hegemony and the new security systems in Africa
African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 2015
This paper evaluates the new scramble for Africa in the post-cold war era which has largely contributed to the geostrategic reshaping of the continent. Although much like its predecessor, this newfound scramble is based on resource scarcity that favors dominant powers and discards the hopes and interests of African peoples. The paper deviates, as it should, from the pessimistic outlook that western scholars have adopted in their prediction of African future. Rather, this analysis builds on the perspective founded by prominent Pan African figures like Henry Sylvester Williams, Edward W. Blyden, W.E.B. Du Bois and Kwame Nkrumah where the main focus lies in forming a comprehensive view of Africa founded on principles of unity and renaissance, in a way that supports the aspiration of the African peoples. The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of solving African problems through African perspectives, reiterating the need for relying on the African Union (AU) as framework to formulate a system of collective security. The African Peace and Security Architecture came into existence by establishing the Peace and Security Council (PSC) in 2004.
African Solutions to Africa’s Problems? African Approaches to Peace, Security and Stability
Scientia Militaria - South African Journal of Military Studies, 2015
Africa, with its combination of fragile governments and institutions, abject poverty amid great resources, wealth and a legacy of incessant violent conflict, has increasingly become integrated into the global security architecture. With growing globalisation, insecurity anywhere is a threat to security everywhere. Given this context, Africa's own insecurity is serving as a source of concern for the United States and other global powers. Africa is plagued by a broad spectrum of traditional and non-traditional security threats on the one hand, and yet, as will be seen in this article, home to an emerging regional and international security consciousness and activism on the other. It was the purpose of the study on which this article reports, to examine African approaches to ensure peace, security and stability on the continent at national, sub-regional and regional level. The African Union's (AU) approach to the promotion of peace and security on the continent can be described as a constructivist-inspired cooperative security approach, and it will be demonstrated that sub-regional organisations are very important security enforcing actors in the African security architecture.
The problems of African development and integration with the world of globalisation have continued to attract concern in the policymaking cycle and the academic world, within and beyond the shores of the continent. Ever since the issues of economic development became the continent's priority, a series of propositions have been advanced and considered. Against a background of post-colonial nationalism, most African leaders have preferred African solutions to African (development and security) problems, despite the region's continuous reliance on external investment and markets. At the moment, however, this strategy is low priority. In consideration of this, a revival and new dimension of the African Solution (AS) Strategy is observed in this paper. In this regard, global, regional and sub-regional struggles for competitiveness and the resultant hegemonic traits are seen to dominate the unveiling of AS Strategy.
Reflections on the Evolving African Peace and Security Architecture
African Security, 2014
In the twenty-first century, African states and a wide range of partners have made considerable progress in constructing the African Peace and Security Architecture––a complex set of interrelated and overlapping institutions with mandates spanning the entire conflict management spectrum from preventive diplomacy to postwar reconstruction. Specifically, as used here, the African Peace and Security Architecture refers to the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, the African Standby Force, the Continental Early Warning System, the Peace Fund, the Panel of the Wise, and the relevant Regional Economic Communities, regional mechanisms, and parts of the African Union Commission involved in these institutions. This article reflects on the evolution of these institutions and highlights some of the main areas of progress as well as the challenges encountered along the way.
AFRICAN UNION AND CRISIS OF REGIONAL SECURITY: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Irish International Journal of Law, Political Science and Administration , 2023
The development of Africa region is undoubtedly challenged by torrents of armed conflicts amid measures initiated to abate it. Acknowledging this fact, this discourse assess critically the efforts of Africa Union towards crisis of regional peace and security. In a qualitative methodological perspective, the discourse relied on documentary sources to content-analyze data generated. The study revealed frameworks of regional security regime of Africa Union which resonate from Peace and Security Council, PSC and Peace and Security Architecture, APSA in response to exigencies of peace building initiatives amid institutional lapses, climate of distrust among Africa heads of states, foreign interest infiltration and other sundry constraints towards safe and stable continent. From the findings, the discourse advocate for consciousness of African political elite on the imperatives of peace for development, review of continental security roadmap in credence to new dynamics, among other measures for effective response of the Africa Union to the crisis of regional security.
A Handy Frame for Understanding African Peace and Security in the 21st Century
SSRN, 2019
Africa is a vast and complex continent that does not lend itself readily to facile characterizations. Yet the need for a handy framework for getting to grips with the state of security and political risk for individual African countries—one that could explain more than the common reductive narrative of war and disease—is ever present. The distortive impact of Africa’s encounter with colonialism and its recreation on the Westphalian state model based on inherited borders is real, and it often looms large in renderings of social, economic and political phenomena. We look beyond this somewhat reductionist lens to propose a frame that identifies five key structural factors that might be seen as essential to a nuanced understanding of the security and political reality in Africa. Granted, a framework that encompasses ethnicity, the state of democracy, rule of law, geopolitics and technology furnishes but one set of lenses. It does no more than provide one set of tools to obtain a summative yet nuanced grasp of what can be a complex and daunting reality. The twin assumptions that undergird our thinking pertain to the role of the state and the essence of security. We posit that the primary role of the state is to secure life, limb and property—a task that calls for effective resolution of conflicts vertically between the state and subjects of the law and horizontally between the latter. Security encompasses more than regime security, state security and physical security and liberty of individuals—it extends to elements that touch on the social and economic welfare of individuals and societies. Citizen security, or human security, it is often called.