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Key Text Conflict and Peace-building in Africa: The Regional Dimensions

Author: T Shaw
Date: 2003
Size: 21 pages (704 KB)

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Summary

What are the patterns of conflict in African wars? What role do non-state actors play in these conflicts? This paper for the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU/WIDER) analyses and compares regional conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa. The author argues that the causes and characteristics of Africa’s conflicts are heterogeneous. Continental perspectives need to be replaced by regional ones in order to develop policies for peace.

The resilience of post-Cold War conflicts in Africa led to the emergence of a political economy of violence approach. This suggests that modern African wars are more about economic resources and political survival than ethnicity, religion, ideology or geography. Neo-liberalism and globalisation have caused already weak African states to shrink and civil society and multinational corporations to rise in power. As governments lose control of agendas, identities, the media, territories, and security, so conflicts multiply over diminishing resources. This creates a ‘regime vacuum’ as states lose their authority for governance. However, the political economy approach needs to be adapted to take account of non-state actors. The private sector is especially important where diamonds and precious minerals are involved. Inter-relationships between actors are complex, and regional. Emerging or existing characteristics of these wars are:

Regional and global inequalities and insecurities have spawned ‘non-traditional’ security issues such as migration, disease, environmental degradation, and gang violence
Military forces also become a fourth player in the governance nexus of state, civil society, and market as governments lose control over them
The use of private security forces by the private sector, international financial institutions, and increasingly even NGOs
Warring parties often do not need to mobilise popular support as long as they control or access diamond, oil, or precious mineral revenue
There are inter-regional tensions between the formal industrial diamond sector in Southern Africa and the informal, artisanal sector elsewhere on the continent. The formal sector is attempting to distance itself from ‘blood diamonds’.

The causes and characteristics of Africa’s conflicts are heterogeneous. Continental perspectives need to be replaced by regional ones in order to develop policies for peace. Two types of sub-regional governance architectures have emerged in Southern Africa that could be models for the rest of the continent. ‘Peace corridors’ are sub-regional zones of peace involving local and national governments and the private sector. Cross-border peace parks have also been set up, all involving South Africa as a major stakeholder. These two structures offer more promise for sustainable peace as they have deeper and broader roots among a variety of actors than presidential agreements. In addition, policy makers need to:

Redefine the political economy of violence approach to focus on human rather than national security, and include consideration of non-traditional security issues such as disease and ecology
Foster civil society as a partner in peace-building both for programme implementation and to build advocacy
Engage non-state as well as state actors in developing ‘peace-building governance’.

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Source: Shaw, T., 2003, 'Conflict and Peace-building in Africa: The Regional Dimensions', UNU-WIDER, Discussion Paper No. 2003/10
Author: Tim Shaw , tim.shaw@royalroads.ca