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]
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.
Crime and Instability: Case Studies of Transnational Threats
UN Office on Drugs and Crime, 2010.
Organized crime and attendant illicit trafficking has undermined the rule of law in various regions around Africa and become both cause and symptom of instability and conflict. Efforts to confront these challenges are too often merely national or bilateral in scope, against which the transnational complexity and sophistication of criminal networks has proven very resilient. [PDF]Organized Crime in South Africa
By STRATFOR, 2008.
An in-depth analysis of the history, structure, and geography of organized crime in South Africa. While cognizant of the tremendous strides the South African government has made from the apartheid days when organized crime formed a key role in many industries, the article emphasizes the continued attraction of South Africa as an attractive destination for organized crime. [HTML]'Shadow Networks' and Conflict Resolution in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
'Shadow Networks' and Conflict Resolution in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. By Laurence Juma. African Security Review, 2007. This paper explores the limitations of international legal regimes in combatting illicit trade networks and suggests some improvements aimed at increasing their effectiveness at reducing conflict in the region. Focuses on the case of the 'conflict network' phenomenon in the Congo War. [HTML]
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