African Security最新文献

{"title":"The Potential for Violent Extremist Organizations in Africa to Take Advantage of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in Ungoverned Spaces: The Cases of al-Shabaab and Boko Haram","authors":"Viktor Marsai, I. Tarrósy","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2077682","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2077682","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Under COVID-19 pressures, governments of many fragile African states not only struggle to provide services and help their societies, but they are also to deal with the constant threat violent extremist organizations (VEOs) present. The paper discusses how VEOs exploit this situation to gain local support by using their alternative service provision capabilities, together with the necessary narratives propagating their legitimacy. It offers the examples of al-Shabaab and Boko Haram. The main finding of the analysis is that VEOs managed to utilize the pandemic extremely fast, and proved to be more adaptive to the changing circumstances than their “enemies.”","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"163 - 185"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44598474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Peace-Making, Military Integration, Banditry, and Weaponization of the COVID-19 Pandemic by Extremist Groups","authors":"Temitope B. Oriola, W. Knight","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2085427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2085427","url":null,"abstract":"This issue of African Security covers themes as diverse as peace-making, military integration, banditry, and weaponization of the COVID-19 pandemic by extremist groups. Contexts covered include East, West and Central Africa. The first paper in this issue, “A Faulty Prescription? Critiquing Joint Security Units after Peace Agreements in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic,” problematizes the doctrine of military integration and establishment of joint units. Aly Verjee argues, in cases drawn from Sudan, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, that the results produced by these joint units have been largely disappointing because of politics. The second paper in this issue, “Beyond ungoverned spaces”: Connecting the Dots between Relative Deprivation, Banditry, and Violence in Nigeria’, challenges the concept of “ungoverned spaces,” which is fast approaching hegemonic status in analyses of violence in several parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Promise Frank Ejiofor produces a nuanced and textured argument noting that the concept does not put socioeconomic issues into cognizance. Ejiofor emphasizes the salience of material and ethnic grievances of pastoralists in cases of banditry and warns against the utilization of military measures, which may lead to persistence of violence. Olajide O. Akanji’s paper “In Hindsight: The African Union’s Peacemaking Role in Côte d’Ivoire’s Post-Election Crisis (2010–2011),” is the third piece in this issue. Akanji, building on existing literature, argues that the AU’s role was more robust than mere mediation. The paper’s argument is instructive. Akanji argues that the deployment of force by UNOCI/Force Licorne is an AU shortcoming and should not be construed as a failure of enquiry methods and conciliation. Akanji underscores how the international political environment acts as a constraining device on the AU’s capacity. The final article in this issue is titled “The Potential for Violent Extremist Organizations in Africa to take Advantage of the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis in Ungoverned Spaces: The Cases of al-Shabaab and Boko Haram.” In this piece, Viktor Marsai and István Tarrósy argue that violent extremist organizations have weaponized the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on examples from al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, Marsai and Tarrósy demonstrate how states have struggled to provide services during the pandemic while at the same time trying to deal with violent extremist organizations. The paper argues that states have been slower to adapt to the pandemic than violent extremist organizations. Consequently, alAFRICAN SECURITY 2022, VOL. 15, NO. 2, 89–90 https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2085427","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"89 - 90"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42269938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Beyond Ungoverned Spaces: Connecting the Dots between Relative Deprivation, Banditry, and Violence in Nigeria","authors":"Promise Frank Ejiofor","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2061320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2061320","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The emergence of criminal groups—“armed bandits” in the local parlance—in the northwest geopolitical zone has compounded the security conundrums in Nigeria. The dominant explanation for the ongoing banditry draws on the “ungoverned spaces” theoretical framework to contend that the phenomenon is a by-product of the state’s abject failure to monopolize violence over its territory. The failure on the part of the state to impose order on its territory leaves much room for loosely organized vicious armed groups to wreak havoc on local communities in the northwest region. The proponents of this perspective inevitably recommend a military solution to the security problem. In this article, I take a different position that counteracts the “ungoverned spaces” thesis. I argue that the “ungoverned spaces” thesis blatantly ignores the socioeconomic context within which banditry is embedded and how such context nurtures crime and deviance. Drawing on the relative deprivation theory, I contend that banditry owes not so much to “ungoverned spaces” but to the ethnic cum material grievances of some pastoralists who have taken to criminality for survival and who pinpoint discrepancies between what they had, what they have, and what they think they should have. I argue that resolving banditry would require attending to pastoralists’ grievances through apposite socioeconomic interventions.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"111 - 141"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43173876","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"In Hindsight: The African Union’s Peace-making Role in Cote d’Ivoire’s Post-Election Crisis (2010-2011)","authors":"O. Akanji","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2077686","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2077686","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Whereas the literature on the role of the African Union (AU) in the Ivorian post-election crisis has focused mainly on the use of mediation as a strategy of intervention, this paper demonstrates that the AU’s role was more than mediation, but encompassed the whole scope of peace-making, including good offices, conciliation and enquiry. The paper however posits that, the use of force to resolve the crisis was not sufficient to suggest the ineffectiveness or failure of the peace-making procedures/measures as conflict resolution mechanisms. Rather, it indicates the constraints of the AU and its capacity shaped by international political environment.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"142 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43940544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Faulty Prescription? Critiquing Joint Security Units after Peace Agreements in Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic","authors":"Aly Verjee","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2048584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2048584","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article critiques the prescription of joint security units called for by civil war peace agreements as a means to integrate armed forces previously in conflict. Drawing on cases from Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, this article offers a comparative assessment of the joint security units attempted in each country. As negotiators and mediators often employ templates from other contexts, the deficits exemplified by these cases call for rethinking the practice of establishing joint units in the doctrine of military integration, as well as in the wider practice of negotiating security arrangements in peace processes.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"91 - 110"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47361074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of ISIS’s Threats in the Middle East and Africa","authors":"Marcin Styszyński","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2048594","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2048594","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyzes strategies of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and its operational capacities in the Middle East and Africa. Jihadists have witnessed the collapse of the so-called caliphate, established by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. They have also suffered from shortage of supplies thanks to opposition forces that besieged insurgents in refugee camps, or isolated them in desert, mountainous, or rural territories. This research argues that the main objective of ISIS as an organization concerns implementation of local branches called Wilayat (provinces). The analysis of ISIS’s activities highlights different measures launched by the group to achieve this approach. This article also demonstrates that jihadists managed to establish the Wilayat concept only in certain countries, and in regions such as the Sahel, and that they faced obstacles in other parts of the Middle East and Africa that have been dominated by Al-Qaeda’s activities.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"74 - 88"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41680344","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Vaccine nationalism, violent extremist problematique and state management of combat-related deaths","authors":"W. Knight, Temitope B. Oriola","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2059923","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2059923","url":null,"abstract":"The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed in stark terms the perpetuation of global apartheid and the persistence of the yawning gap between developed and developing countries. Mzukisi Qobo, Matlala Setlhalogile, and Mills Soko, the authors of the first article in this issue of African Security, “The Political Economy of Global Vaccine Nationalism: Towards Building Agency for Africa’s Drug Manufacturing Capacity,” critique the morally repugnant predatory behavior of pharmaceutical firms in the global north that take advantage of the health insecurity crisis to increase the prices of much needed vaccines for people in the global south. In doing so, the authors also point, at least implicitly to the structural racism that underpins the movements by countries in the global north toward vaccine nationalism. They suggest a pragmatic prescription: African countries, representing the marginalized segments of the globe, should engage in scientific collaboration to build local capacity for manufacturing vaccines, develop human capital and nurture value chains to be able to counter the health insecurity that ultimately follows from global pandemics. However, addressing this health security concern will require collaboration between rich and poor countries. Rich countries must be willing to work with the WTO on an agreement to introduce intellectual property waivers that would allow poor countries to manufacture successful vaccines. At the same time, poor countries need to focus on practical ways of encouraging technology transfers to, and skills upgrades of, their populations. This outstanding piece has both scholarly and policy implications. The second article, “Comparative Perspectives on Linkages between Violent Extremism and Organized Crime in Africa,” by Anouar Boukhars and Catherine Lena Kelly, makes an excellent contribution to understanding another element of insecurity on the African continent, viz., the nexus between violent extremism and organized crime. Conceptually, Boukhars and Kelly draw on the recent literature on concatenated violence to situate the coexistence-cooperation-convergence spectrum of these two challenges and threats to security in Africa (the terror-crime dynamic). This article not only makes a useful contribution to the African security literature, it also raises a number of significant issues that ought to be taken up by scholars who want to understand the complex nature of criminal networks and sustenance of terror organizations. The authors argue that this complex crime-terror nexus is one of the defining features of contemporary African security. This is supported by the authors’ empirical examination of the cases of Sahel-Sahara, Lake Chad Basin, and the Horn of Africa. How African AFRICAN SECURITY 2022, VOL. 15, NO. 1, 1–3 https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2059923","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"1 - 3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46211896","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Comparative Perspectives on Linkages between Violent Extremism and Organized Crime in Africa","authors":"Anouar Boukhars, C. Kelly","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2022.2048582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2022.2048582","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Complex linkages between violent extremist and organized criminal groups are a defining feature of contemporary African security. As comparisons across the Sahel-Sahara, Lake Chad Basin, and Horn of Africa attest, the interactions of these groups vary in terms of how intentional, proactive, and formal they are, and how much they develop on the organizational or individual level. These realities, which express themselves differently across contexts, must all be considered to accurately situate cases on the spectrum of coexistence, cooperation, and convergence that is frequently used in Africa-focused discussions about policy response. The comparisons illustrate two aspects of variation within the spectrum’s established categories of cooperation and convergence that deserve further attention: (i) the extent to which cooperation occurs organizationally versus individually, and (ii) the extent to which convergence happens across multiple criminal markets when it occurs. Tracking these aspects of linkage can facilitate classifications of the linkages between violent extremism and organized crime that are based on a more precise and contextualized articulation of the mechanisms through which cooperation or convergence may be in play.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"26 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43713707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Nigerian Army’s Communication and Management of Combat-Related Deaths in the War against Boko Haram","authors":"F. Ajala","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2021.2017737","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2021.2017737","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Thousands of Nigerian soldiers have lost their lives in the military operations against Boko Haram over the past decade. This article examines the way these deaths were communicated to the widows of the deceased soldiers. Data for this paper was gathered from in-depth interviews with military personnel, widows, and secondary sources. The findings showed non-adherence to due process and professionalism in the death communication process. Bureaucratic bottlenecks and combat realities also affected the casualty notification procedure. These show the inadequacy of the current military communication process concerning the sensitivities of wartime deaths. Accordingly, this article suggests ways of improving the communication of combat deaths in ways that reflect their heroic essence.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"51 - 73"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43837852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Political Economy of Global Vaccine Nationalism: Towards Building Agency for Africa’s Drug Manufacturing Capacity","authors":"Mzukisi Qobo, Mills Soko, Matlala Setlhalogile","doi":"10.1080/19392206.2021.2009099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19392206.2021.2009099","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic in early 2020, several countries have moved from non-pharmaceutical interventions in combatting the Covid-19 pandemic to developing vaccine acquisition strategies. Many developed countries adopted strategies to secure and stockpile vaccines. Pharmaceutical firms used their bargaining power to negotiate steep vaccine prices in developing nations. Vaccine nationalism and the predatory behavior of pharmaceutical firms make the case for temporarily lifting intellectual property protections a morally compelling one. African countries must work together to build vaccine manufacturing capacity through scientific cooperation, development of human capital, and nurturing of value chains.","PeriodicalId":44631,"journal":{"name":"African Security","volume":"15 1","pages":"4 - 25"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46457761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}