Linking the drivers of insecurity and security in Africa

Abstract

In this edition our authors remind us that although the scourge of organised crime and political violence remains part of societies in Africa, popular views are not always helpful when it comes to finding solutions for sustainable peace and security. For instance, one popular perception is that illicit and criminal activities are always linked to political opposition and insurgency; another is that immigrants are the cause of violent crime in society. Although we accept the evidence that shows a link between the drivers of insecurity such as crime, political resistance and illegal immigration, research shows that this is not always the case in all spaces. However, what does show a strong correlation is the link between government-driven peace initiatives with local ownership, non-governmental organisations and non-violent political movements that bring agency to the quest for assured, sustainable peace. In their article ‘Piracy as a result of IUU fishing: Challenging the causal link’, Sasha Jesperson and Rune Henriksen demonstrate that illicit activities such as illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and piracy as organised crime can take place in the same space (in this case the Gulf of Guinea). However, although both piracy and IUU are drivers of insecurity, there is not necessarily a causal link between the two activities. Gwinyayi Albert Dzinesa, in his article ‘The Zimbabwe Peace and Reconciliation Commission: Towards an integrated national infrastructure for peace?’, presents a solution to security challenges which aims to overcome the limitations of the ‘statist, top-down approaches’ that are not sufficient to build peace. A mechanism such as the Zimbabwe Peace and Reconciliation Commission can be effective if it is part of a ‘broad peace infrastructure, weaving horizontal and vertical relationships with various local stakeholders with the assistance of international partners’. The principles of the initiative are national and local ownership, inclusivity, gender mainstreaming and cooperation and capacity-building for sustainability, with external support where necessary. In the same context, Simbarashe Gukurume emphasises non-violent resistance as a form of political opposition in his article ‘Youth and the temporalities of non-violent struggles in Zimbabwe: #ThisFlag Movement’. He points out that young people with ‘techno-savviness’ present agency and social navigation for mass mobilisation to defy a government in a nonviolent way. In his article ‘Peace agreements with no peace: A critical review of peace agreements in the Central African Republic’, Robert Kosho Ndiyun identifies the different ‘paths of peace’ available to societies. In this regard he identifies the sustainability of peace as an essential element of any pathway adopted by communities that aims to guarantee assured peace, prevent a reversion to conflict and authoritarian rule and create an opportunity to repair harm after violent conflict. Matthew Kimble and Shannon Bosch argue for the value of private military and security companies (PMSCs) as instruments of foreign policy implementation in their article ‘Private