Sökformulär

Regional cooperation

The Challenge of Sub-Regional Security in West Africa : The case of the 2006 ECOWAS convention on small arms and light weapons

Upphovsperson: Darkwa, Linda
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala
År: 2011
Ämnesord: West Africa, Weapons, Small arms, Armament, Disarmament, Arms transfers, Cross-border trade, Informal sector, Organized crime, Regional security, Regional cooperation, Post-conflict reconstruction, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This Discussion Paper provides insights into the challenges posed by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in West Africa, paying particular attention to the ECOWAS convention on small arms and light weapons as a collective sub-regional response to a potent threat to peace, security and development. It connects global and regional discourses on illicit arms control and provides a balanced, empirical xamination of the performance of the convention. It is a useful contribution to debates on arms-proliferation control in Africa and provides well-informed recommendations of interest to scholars, peace activists, policy practitioners and strategists working on peace and security in Africa.

Afro-regions : the dynamics of cross-border micro-regionalism in Africa

Medarbetare: Söderbaum, Fredrik | Taylor, Ian
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: regionalization, Regional cooperation, regional integration, regional development, Regional organizations, politics, Governance, case studies, Africa, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This collection focuses on the making and unmaking of cross-border micro-regions in Africa. Its main emphasis is that micro-regions are not givens, but are constructed and reconstructed through social practice, political economy and, in discourse, by a variety of states, corporations and non-state actors. The region-builders are the focus -- that is, those actors that build and make micro-regions and their associated region-building strategies. Key research questions are: for whom, for what purpose and with what consequences are micro-regions being made and unmade? There is also special emphasis on how people on the ground and local communities create their own region-building strategies and how they respond to the region-building strategies of others. The case studies -- by leading scholars of African studies and the result of extensive fieldwork -- include a wide selection of micro-regions all over Africa, such as the Maputo Development Corridor, the Zambezi Valley region, the Zambia-Malawi-Mozambique Growth Triangle, Walvis Bay, the Sierra Leone-Liberia border zone, cross-border micro-regions on the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes region, North Africa, and so forth.

Peace and Security Cooperation in Central Africa : Developments, Challenges and Prospects

Upphovsperson: Meyer, Angela
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Regional organizations, Economic organizations, Regional cooperation, regional integration, Peacekeeping, Institution building, Regional security, Central Africa, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This Discussion Paper provides the most up-to-date insights into Central Africa’s peace and security architecture. Its breath and depth attest to a deep knowledge of the history and politics of regional cooperation in a region that has attracted less attention in the literature than West, East and Southern Africa. It provides readers with first-hand knowledge of regional cooperation and integration, and the expansion of this agenda in Central Africa to include peace and security issues. Dispassionate and clear insights are offered into the intra-regional dynamics of the regional peace and security institutions FOMAC and MICOPAX, the challenges and constraints confronting regional peace in Central Africa and the potential for change. It is essential reading for all those seeking a good grasp of the complex dimensions of peace and security in Central Africa and the prospects for the future.

Eroding local capacity : international humanitarian action in Africa

Medarbetare: Juma, Monica Kathina | Suhrke, Astri
Utgivare: Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2002
Ämnesord: Humanitarian assistance, Emergency relief, Capacity building, Local planning, Regional cooperation, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Eroding Local Capacity is a critical examination of the interplay between international and local actors operating in the humanitarian arena in Africa. All sides emphasise the need to build local capacity for humanitarian action, yet the results have not been substantial. Even long-term, semi-permanent emergencies have generated little local capacity to assist and protect the victims of violence, displacement and related deprivations. In some cases, whatever local capacity did exist has been overwhelmed by the international aid presence. Why is this so? What is the case for a more even division of labour between North and South in this area, and why is it so difficult to bring about? The book focuses on cases from East Africa and the Horn. It considers institutional capacity in the public and private sector, as well as legal and social norms of humanitarian action. The authors are African and Nordic scholars who worked together on the NORAD-supported project over a 3-year period. Preliminary conclusions were discussed at seminars organized by the Centre for Foreign Relations (Dar es Salaam), the School of Government at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town), and the Chr. Michelsen Institute (Bergen).

Beyond Drops Water: Four Imperatives to Cooperation in the Nile Basin : Claude Ake Memorial Lecture 2010

Upphovsperson: Yacob, Arsano
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2010
Ämnesord: Nile river, Water resources, Regional cooperation, International relations, Environmental security, Peaceful coexistence, Video recordings, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The Nile basin is one of the oldest places on earth to which renowned civilizations, polities, kingdoms and empires are attributed. The Nile is the world’s longest river whose basin covers some 3.3 million sq. km and shared by ten countries. Whether in the upstream or downstream the countries and communities are permanently bound together, and their millions owe to it the present livelihood and future prosperity. On the contrary, the Nile Basin lacks a cooperative mechanism and perennially stuck in the lingering tension over apportionment of the waters. It is about time now for the Nile basin countries to work towards a viable cooperation beyond drops of water. A mutually acceptable cooperative engagement among the riparian nations is condition-sine-qua-non for enhancing development in each country and achieving the much desired peace and mutual security in the basin. The 2010 Claude Ake Memorial Lecture will, therefore, focus on the economic, environmental, security and institutional imperatives for cooperation and peace building in the Nile Basin. Dr. Yacob Arsano is Associate Professor of Political Science & International Relations at Addis Ababa University.

The African Union and the challenges of implementing the “responsibility to protect”

Upphovsperson: Kuwali, Daniel
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: United Nations, African Union, Regional security, African organizations, Regional cooperation, International relations, Foreign intervention, Dispute settlement, Peacekeeping, Defence policy, Crime prevention, Human rights, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The concept of the “responsibility to protect” (“R2P”) was endorsed by the world’s leaders sitting at the 2005 World Summit level in the UN General Assembly. The World Summit Outcome Document affirmed that every sovereign government has a responsibility to protect its citizens and those within its jurisdiction from genocide, war crimes, “ethnic cleansing” and crimes against humanity (UN 2005 paras. 138–139). The concept of R2P is cast in the three core pillars: first, an affirmation of the primary and continuing obligation of individual states to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, as well as incitement thereof; second, a commitment by the international community to assist states in meeting these obligations; and third, acceptance by UN member states of their responsibility to respond in a timely and decisive manner through the UN Security Council, if national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations from these mass atrocity crimes. R2P is a restatement of positive binding obligations of states to protect their citizens from mass atrocity crimes; and the collective responsibility to the international community to prevent mass atrocity crimes. R2P is about taking effective action at the earliest possible stage (Evans 2008). These obligations are particularly relevant to Africa in the face of crises such as those in Sudan (Darfur), parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Somalia. It is, however, rather early to pass definitive judgement on the relatively young notion of R2P without addressing some of the challenges confronting its implementation in Africa.

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