The Africa Center’s Africa Security Briefs are concise analyses of critical security challenges facing Africa that generate practical insights on a topic or context as well as actionable recommendations for policymakers and practitioners.
Africa's Militaries: A Missing Link in Democratic Transitions
By Mathurin C. Houngnikpo. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, January 2012.
The institutionalization of democratic norms in Africa's militaries is often lagging behind advances made in civilian institutions and civil society. In some situations, security sectors have actively aligned themselves with incumbent leaders seeking to stay in power, thereby discrediting the entire security sector and marginalizing the role it can play when transitions do occur. With national elections becoming increasingly routine and subject to stricter oversight, such dilemmas will continue to be front and center in Africa's political development.
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Alternative Dispute Resolution in Africa: Preventing Conflict and Enhancing Stability
By Ernest Uwazie. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, November 2011.
Low-level disputes in Africa can spiral into violence and conflict due to the lack of effective judicial systems that can provide a credible and timely process for resolving differences. Alternative Dispute Resolution techniques can strengthen dispute settlement systems and bridge the gap between formal legal systems and traditional modes of African justice. They may have particular value in stabilization and statebuilding efforts when judicial institutions are weak and social tensions are high.
Sifting Through the Layers of Insecurity in the Sahel: The Case of Mauritania
By Cédric Jourde. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, September 2011.
Increasing narcotraffic and a more active AQIM are elevating concerns over instability in the Sahel. However, the region’s threats are more complex than what is observable on the surface. Rather, security concerns are typically characterized by multiple, competing, and fluctuating interests at the local, national, and regional levels. Effectively responding to these threats requires in-depth understanding of the multiple contextual layers in which illicit actors operate.
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Nigeria's Pernicious Drivers of Ethno-Religious Conflict
By Chris Kwaja. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, July 2011.
Nigeria's long-running "indigene-settler" conflict in and around Jos, Plateau State has escalated in recent years and may spread to other ethnically mixed regions of the country, heightening instability. Navigating such inter-communal fault lines is a common challenge for many African societies that requires looking past symptoms to address systemic drivers. In Nigeria, this will entail measures that directly mitigate violence as well as realize constitutional reform.
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Optimizing Africa's Security Force Structures
By Helmoed Heitman. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, May 2011.
Combating irregular forces has become a common feature of the contemporary African security landscape. However, the security sector in most African countries is ill-prepared to conduct effective counter-insurgency operations. Realigning force structures to address these threats while building security sector professionalism to gain the trust of local populations is needed to do so. Download the Brief in [ENGLISH] [FRANÇAIS] [PORTUGUESE]Urban Fragility and Security in Africa
By Stephen Commins, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2011Estimates are that more than half of all Africans will live in cities by 2025. This rapid pace of urbanization is creating a new locus of fragility in many African states – as evidenced by the burgeoning slums around many of the continent’s urban areas – and the accompanying rise in violence, organized crime, and the potential for instability. These evolving threats, in turn, have profound implications for Africa’s security sector. Download the Brief in [ENGLISH] [FRANÇAIS] [PORTUGUESE]
West Africa’s Growing Terrorist Threat: Confronting AQIM’s Sahelian Strategy
By Modibo Goïta, Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2011Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has undertaken increasingly frequent and effective attacks in the past year, posing a dangerous and growing threat in Africa's Sahel region. Reversing this trend presents a particularly complex challenge as AQIM has simultaneously strengthened ties to local communities and regional criminal networks. Efforts to counter AQIM will require collaborative region-wide strategies that feature complementary security and development initiatives.
Click here for PDFs in: [ENGLISH][FRANÇAIS][PORTUGUESE]Investing in Science and Technology to Meet Africa’s Maritime Security Challenges
By Augustus Vogel. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2011.
A growing number of Africa's security challenges - narcotics trafficking, piracy, illegal fishing, and armed robberies, among others - take place at sea. Illicit actors exploit Africa's maritime space given its expansiveness and the limited number of vessels African governments can field to interdict this activity. In this Africa Security Brief, Augustus Vogel argues that technology can dramatically improve Africa's maritime security coverage. However, to do so will require engaging Africa's scientists who can guide and sustain these efforts. This will yield not only security but environmental and meteorological benefits for the continent. [ENGLISH] [FRENCH] [PORTUGUESE]Playing Ostrich: Lessons Learned from South Africa’s Response to Terrorism
By Hussein Solomon. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2011.
While not often considered a hub in global terrorist networks, South Africa has seen a steady and growing pattern of domestic and al-Qaeda-linked terrorist activity over the past decade. Coinciding with the creeping expansion of terrorist threats in other parts of the continent, this Security Brief examines lessons learned from South Africa's experience and their potential relevance to other African countries and their security sectors."
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A Chronology of Terrorism in South Africa: [ENGLISH] [FRENCH] [PORTUGUESE]
Democracy and the Chain of Command: A New Governance of Africa’s Security Sector
By Dominique Djindjéré. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2010.As many African countries continue down the path of democratic reform, Africa's defense and security forces must make fundamental changes to adapt to a democratic model of governance. In this paper, General Djindjere puts forward five priority reforms Africa's defense and security forces should pursue to facilitate this transition. In addition to building professionalism, the legitimacy and trust security forces will gain in the eyes of their compatriots from this process will lead to greater effectiveness and popular support for national security efforts.
Nonstate Policing: Expanding the Scope for Tackling Africa’s Urban Violence
By Bruce Baker. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2010.
The increasingly internal nature of Africa's security threats is placing ever greater pressures on Africa's police forces. Yet severe resource and capacity limitations, combined with high levels of public distrust, leave most African police forces incapable of effectively addressing these expanding urban-based threats in the near term. This Security Brief examines the potential of nonstate policing organizations - community-based groups with local credibility and knowledge - to help fill this gap.
"Africa's Fragile States: Empowering Extremists, Exporting Terrorism,"
By Zachary Devlin-Foltz. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2010.Persistent reports of extremist activity from across Africa have deepened concern over the spread of radicalism on the continent. Extremists capitalize on political and security vacuums within Africa’s fragile states to grow their support base and consolidate their strength. Stable states that provide opportunities for political participation empower moderates while delegitimating extremists’ use of violence. [ENGLISH] [FRENCH] [PORTUGUESE]
Cocaine and Instability in Africa: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean
By Davin O'Regan. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2010.
Africa is facing an increasingly menacing threat of cocaine trafficking that risks undermining its security structures, nascent democratic institutions, and development progress. Latin America has long faced similar challenges and its experience provides important lessons that can be applied before this expanding threat becomes more deeply entrenched on the continent - and costly to reverse. [ENGLISH] [FRENCH] [PORTUGUESE]Misinterpreting Ethnic Conflicts in Africa
By Fr. Clement Mweyang Aapenguo. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2010.
Ethnic conflicts in Africa are often portrayed as having ages-old origins with little prospects for resolution. This article challenges that notion arguing that a re-diagnosis of the underlying drivers to ethnic violence can lead to more effective and sustainable responses.
[PDF] English [PDF] French [PDF] PortugueseLessons Learned from Peace Operations in Africa
By Paul Williams. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2010. Peace operations have been a principal tool used to curb conflict in Africa over the past decade, with over 40 operations deployed since 2000. This article takes stock of lessons learned from these experiences and the implications they hold for improving the effectiveness of future peace operations in Africa.
[PDF] English [PDF] French [PDF] PortugueseNavies versus Coast Guards: Defining the Roles of African Maritime Security Forces
By Augustus Vogel. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2009.Piracy, illegal fishing, and narcotics and human trafficking are growing rapidly in Africa and represent an increasingly central component of the threat matrix facing the continent. However, African states’ maritime security structures are often misaligned with the challenges posed and need coast guard capabilities and an array of intra-governmental partnerships.
U.S. Security Engagement in Africa
By William M. Bellamy. Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2009.
A significant development in Africa over the past decade has been the generalized lessening of violent conflict. Revitalized, expanded international peacekeeping, bolstered by a newly launched African Union (AU) determination to tackle security challenges, has reinforced this trend. But, much more cohesive interagency coordination under strong White House direction is required if the United States is to contribute to Africa’s sustained stability given the region’s persistent conditions of poverty, inequality, and weak governance. [PDF] English; [PDF] French; [PDF] Portuguese For additional reading go to: Africa Security Challenges
