Africa’s security challenges are complex and changing. Traditional security threats such as interstate conflict are now joined by an emerging array of complex issues such as organized crime, maritime piracy, competition for scare resources, and large-scale displacement to threaten Africa’s stability and Africans’ safety. And just as Africa’s security threats evolve, state capacities to address them differ across the continent. This interaction of unfamiliar security threats with varying governance inadequacies yields strategic challenges that demand wide-angle assessment.
For additional reading go to: Countering Extremism
Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Risks in Botswana
By Jackson Madzima. Institute for Security Studies, March 2009.
Most countries in Southern Africa lack comprehensive legal frameworks that criminalize terrorism and the methods to finance it. However, as numerous local arrests of international terrorists suggest, the sub-region is attracting terrorist networks. To prevent such activity, states should institute legal reforms and better coordinate anti-money laundering efforts through available international and sub-regional working groups. [PDF]Islamists in Politics: The Dynamics of Participation
By Marina Ottaway and Amr Hamzawy Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008.
Several Islamic political parties in North Africa are rising political forces and appear committed to the democratic process. On-going intra-party ideological debates about many principles of democratic societies pit hard-line and reformist elements against one another. This internal struggle is often swayed by the degree of political participation afforded to Islamic parties. [PDF]