International security

African conflicts, development and regional organisations in the post-Cold War international system : the annual Claude Ake memorial lecture : Uppsala, Sweden 30 January 2014

Upphovsperson:	Adetula, Victor A. O.
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala
År:	2015
Ämnesord:	regional integration, Conflict management, Regional security, International security, Africa

A number of recent studies have expressed optimism about the constant decrease in armed conflicts around the world. The prognosis for Africa does not reflect the same optimism. Poverty reduction, transparent and accountable governance and citizen satisfaction with the delivery of public goods and service have shown no sign of significant improvement. In this lecture, Victor Adetula examines the performance of Africa’s regional organisations in ensuring peace and security on the continent. In doing this, he draws attention to the need for national and regional actors to pay attention to good governance and development as part of their efforts to operate effective collective security systems and conflict resolution mechanisms without ignoring the essence of the global context.

Supporting African peace operations

Medarbetare:	Gelot, Linnéa | Gelot, Ludwig | de Coning, Cedric
Utgivare:	Uppsala
År:	2012
Ämnesord:	Africa, Civil war, conflicts, Peace corps, Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping, International cooperation, International security, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The Nordic Africa Institute, the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs hosted a seminar in Uppsala, Sweden, on 15 and 16 December 2011, that brought together AU, EU and UN officials closely involved in peace operations in Africa. The seminar’s purpose was to allow participants to compare their experiences of the different support models that have been used to date in Sudan and Somalia. International support for African peace operations provides opportunities but also poses challenges. This report examines four of these challenges in some detail: the AU Commission’s limited capacity to plan and manage peace operations; insufficient political engagement by African member states with AU peace operations; the short-termism and self-interest of some of the AU’s partners; and the need for UN Security Council permanent members to value and ensure a shared AU-UN strategic vision. The report also includes policy recommendations for resolving these challenges.

Common security and civil society in Africa

Medarbetare:	Wohlgemuth, Lennart
Utgivare:	Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	1999
Ämnesord:	Africa, Civil Society, Conflicts, International security, Regional security, Partnership, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This book is the outcome of a conference on Common Security and Civil Society in Africa, held in 1997, and organised jointly by the Nordic Africa Institute and the Common Security Forum, based at the Centre for History and Economics, King's College and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. The idea that security is to be achieved by cooperation more than by confrontation, and that it is an economic and social as well as a military condition, has been a commonplace of international politics for some 20 years. The geometry of common or extended security is complex. But it usually involves an extension of the domain of security, of the sources of security, and of the characteristics of security. Among these diverse kinds of security, it is political security which has come into particular prominence at the end of the 1990s, most strikingly in Africa. Political security, in the sense of legal and political institutions such that individuals feel secure both in their individual rights and in the development of political culture, has come to be seen as the foundation of all other kinds of security. The papers presented in this volume seek to go 'beyond the war of images', to imagine a different and more secure future, and they are concerned with five major themes: economic and social change; the prevention of violent conflict; the causes of conflict; political security; the international politics of development partnership.