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1761. Africa's Irregular Security Threats: Challenges for U.S. Engagement

Author:
Andre Le Sage
Publication Date:
03-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Abstract:
The United States has a growing strategic interest in Africa at a time when the security landscape there is dominated by a wide range of irregular, nonstate threats. Militia factions and armed gangs are ubiquitous in the continent's civil wars, fighting both for and against African governments. Other security challenges include terrorism, drug trafficking, maritime threats such as piracy in the Indian Ocean, and oil bunkering in the Gulf of Guinea. Organized criminal activities, particularly kidnapping, human smuggling and trafficking in persons, weapons smuggling, and environmental and financial crimes, are increasingly brazen and destructive. These are not isolated phenomena. Rather, they create a vicious circle: Africa's irregular threat dynamics sustain black markets directly linked to state corruption, divert attention from democratization efforts, generate or fuel civil wars, drive state collapse, and create safe havens that allow terrorists and more criminals to operate
Topic:
Political Violence, International Cooperation, Poverty, International Security, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa, United States, and India

1762. The rain doesn't come on time anymore: Poverty, vulnerability, and climate variability in Ethiopia

Author:
Senait Regassa, Christina Givey, and Gina E. Castillo
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Climate variability in Ethiopia is not new—its diverse agro-ecological zones have brought a dazzling variety of micro-climates, and corresponding weather patterns, and people have developed ways to respond successfully to these challenges. But now, in addition to the usual struggles, Ethiopians living in poverty are additionally suffering the effects of climate change—both more variable climate and more extreme weather events. Women, men, families, and whole communities are struggling with how to understand this new variability, identify new patterns, and establish what resources they need to be able to move beyond reacting and coping to adapting to the new realities and being resilient. Policy makers, likewise, face the daunting challenge of how to refine policies, especially investments in and related to agriculture, to focus on poverty and vulnerability reduction in context of the new realities of climate change.
Topic:
Climate Change, Environment, and Poverty
Political Geography:
Africa and Ethiopia

1763. Rhetoric and Reality: The Failure to Resolve the Darfur Conflict

Author:
Julie Flint
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
Seven years after large-scale militia attacks signalled a change in the long- running but generally low-level conflict in Darfur, an unprecedented array of international instruments has been deployed, often chaotically, to address the conflict, including peacekeepers, peacemakers, special envoys, mediators, sanctions, embargoes, and criminal prosecution. Yet peace remains as elusive as ever. In the three and a half years since the Darfur Peace Agreement was precipitously concluded in Abuja and, rejected by most Darfurians, left to wither, the paradigm of government–rebel talks has persisted, despite stalemate. Time is not on Darfur's side: the longer the conflict continues, the more actors become involved and the harder it is to resolve. With national elections scheduled for April 2010 and a referendum on self-determination for Southern Sudan in 2011, the focus has moved away from Darfur. This Working Paper examines mediation efforts since Abuja and suggests why they have failed.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Civil War, Ethnic Conflict, Treaties and Agreements, and Armed Struggle
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

1764. Symptoms and causes: Insecurity and underdevelopment in Eastern Equatoria

Author:
Emile LeBrun
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Small Arms Survey
Abstract:
Eastern Equatoria state (EES) is one of the most volatile and conflict-prone states in Southern Sudan. An epicentre of the civil war ( 1983 – 2005 ), EES saw intense fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), as well numerous armed groups supported by both sides, leaving behind a legacy of landmines and unexploded ordnance, high numbers of weapons in civilian hands, and shattered social and community relations.
Topic:
Security, Development, Ethnic Conflict, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa and Sudan

1765. Good Governance Lessons for Primary Education

Author:
Laetitia Antonowicz, Frédéric Lesné, Stéphane Stassen, and John Wood
Publication Date:
02-2010
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Transparency International
Abstract:
This report presents a regional overview of accountability and transparency in primary education management in seven African countries. It has been produced within the framework of Africa Education Watch (AEW). AEW is a three-year programme (2007-2010) implemented by Transparency International (TI) that focuses on governance in the management of public funds in the primary education system.
Topic:
Corruption, Education, Third World, and Governance
Political Geography:
Africa

1766. The Global Financial Crisis and Africa's "Immiserizing Wealth"

Author:
Luc Soete and Alexis Habiyaremye
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United Nations University
Abstract:
Before the current global recession, many resource-rich African countries were recording unprecedented levels of growth due to a raw material price boom. However, the collapse in raw material prices and the ensuing severe economic difficulties have again exposed the vulnerability of these countries' natural resource export-focussed economic structures. In this research brief, we describe how Africa's abundance of natural resources attracted disruptive and predatory foreign forces that have hindered innovation-based growth and economic diversification by delaying the accumulation of sufficient stocks of human capital. We suggest that for their long-term prosperity, resource-rich African countries shift their strategic emphasis from natural to human resources and technological capabilities needed to transform those natural resources into valuable goods and services to compete in the global market.
Topic:
Economics, Emerging Markets, Industrial Policy, Global Recession, Natural Resources, and Financial Crisis
Political Geography:
Africa, China, and India

1767. Not just global rhetoric: Japan's substantive actualization of its human security foreign policy

Author:
Tan Hsien-Li
Publication Date:
01-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Institution:
Japan Association of International Relations
Abstract:
While there is much theoretical and academic discussion of human security, as well as regional expressions of human security by the Organization of American States, African Union, and the European Union, little of this is translated into substance except for Japan, which has incorporated human security into foreign policy. This paper examines Japan's definition and aspiration for human security, especially its plans to expand development aid through this modality in Southeast Asia. This scrutiny will encompass Japanese human security foreign policy and its substantive action through the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the UN Trust Fund for Human Security. Thus, the potential for Japanese human security cooperation with Southeast Asian partners will be reviewed in light of Japan's projected trajectory. The paper concludes by positing that bilateral engagement might be expected for the considerable future and suggests policy consolidation before regional engagement can be effected.
Political Geography:
Africa, Japan, America, Europe, and Southeast Asia

1768. Is Nigeria a Hotbed of Islamic Extremism?

Author:
Stephanie Schwartz
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
Recent incidences of ethno-religious violence in northern Nigeria have alarmed the international community to the point where Nigeria is now perceived as a potential breeding ground for transnational terrorism and violent religious extremism.
Topic:
Ethnic Conflict, Islam, Terrorism, Governance, and Sectarian violence
Political Geography:
Africa and Nigeria

1769. Western Sahara: The Failure of "Negotiations without Preconditions"

Author:
Anna Theofilopoulou
Publication Date:
04-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
United States Institute of Peace
Abstract:
The ongoing effort to use negotiations without preconditions to resolve the conflict between Morocco and the Polisario Front over Western Sahara has not produced results. The April 6, 2010 report of the United Nations secretary-general to the U.N. Security Council admits that there has been no movement on the core substantive issues.
Topic:
Conflict Resolution, Political Violence, Diplomacy, and United Nations
Political Geography:
Africa and Morocco

1770. A New and Improved African Development Bank?

Author:
Todd Moss
Publication Date:
05-2010
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Global Development
Abstract:
In late May 2010 the African Development Bank will be asking its shareholders to approve a tripling of its capital base. In preparation for this pivotal occasion, a Center for Global Development working group evaluated the Bank and came up with three recommendations: 1) focus on promoting economic growth; 2) specialize in infrastructure; and 3) lead, but don't lend, on critical regional and global issues.
Topic:
Development
Political Geography:
Africa