Africa Center for Strategic Studies

• Pastoralists at war: Violence and Security in the Kenya-Sudan-Uganda Border Region.

  By Jonah Leff. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2009. Low-level tensions between pastoralist groups in East Africa’s border regions frequently erupt into deadly confrontations. Government responses have relied too heavily on coercive disarmament campaigns, generating mistrust and prompting violent reprisals. Instead, efforts by civil society groups and inter-governmental efforts to build alternative dispute mechanisms should be replicated.  [PDF]

• Peace and Power Sharing in Africa: A Not So Obvious Relationship

  Peace and Power Sharing in Africa: A Not So Obvious Relationship. By Andreas Mehler. African Affairs, 2009. Crises in Africa are often resolved through power-sharing arrangements. In Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Liberia, however, such agreements were weak as they tended to address only elite concerns and neglected other relevant complexities. A “bottom up” approach featuring publicly debated and transitional power-sharing arrangements provide more beneficial and sustainable solutions.[PDF]

• ‘Negotiating with Ghosts’: Religion, Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda

  ‘Negotiating with Ghosts’: Religion, Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda. By Paul Jackson. The Round Table, 2009. This article outlines the current situation with regard to the Lord’s Resistance Army, the possibilities for peace in Northern Uganda, and the role of traditional justice systems and the ICC in ending the war. It concludes that justice in Northern Uganda requires an end to the false dichotomy of ‘traditional’ and ICC approaches and that the two must complement each other in order to address the different groups within the LRA and the Acholi population. [HTML]

• African Solutions to an International Problem: Arms Control and Disarmament in Africa

  African Solutions to an International Problem: Arms Control and Disarmament in Africa. By Guy Lamb and Dominique Dye. Journal of International Affairs, 2009. The article argues that small arms and light weapons (SALW) are the primary instruments of war in Africa today making the control of SALW trafficking a key component to African security.

• ‘Negotiating with Ghosts’: Religion, Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda

  ‘Negotiating with Ghosts’: Religion, Conflict and Peace in Northern Uganda. By Paul Jackson. The Round Table, 2009. This article outlines the current situation with regard to the Lord’s Resistance Army, the possibilities for peace in Northern Uganda, and the role of traditional justice systems and the ICC in ending the war. It concludes that justice in Northern Uganda requires an end to the false dichotomy of ‘traditional’ and ICC approaches and that the two must complement each other in order to address the different groups within the LRA and the Acholi population.  [HTML]

• Burundi’s Transition: Training Leaders for Peace

  Burundi’s Transition: Training Leaders for Peace. By Howard Wolpe and Steve McDonald. Journal of Democracy, 2006. An account of the Burundi Leadership Training Program that the Woodrow Wilson Center has led since late 2002. The piece focuses on explaining the relative merits of the so-called Ngozi process, whereby representatives from various groups in conflict are brought together to engage in cooperation-building interactive exercises. Their experience may offer useful lessons for others engaged in conflict mitigation work.  [PDF]

• Small Arms and Light Weapons Among Pastoral Groups in the Kenya-Uganda Border Area.

  Small Arms and Light Weapons Among Pastoral Groups in the Kenya-Uganda Border Area. By Kennedy Agade Mkutu. African Affairs, 2006. Results of the author's research into SALWs among pastoral groups in the Kenya-Uganda border area, and the long history of their 'spiral of violence'.  [HTML]

Other Reads