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"When you build a house, you have to start with the foundation." In an interview with the Africa Center, Lt. Col. Mademba Aliou Fall discusses the Senegalese Army's bottom-up strategy for developing leadership skills.
“To be an effective leader, you must want to empower those following you,” says General Martin Luther Agwai in an interview with the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
Examples from Uganda, Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania offer lessons of how ethical leadership is central to maintaining public trust in the security sector and ultimately preserving stability and peace.
Tanzania's Julius Nyerere and Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano offer notable examples of strategic leadership, showing that leaders must seek accommodation with enemies and have the moral courage to persuade reluctant followers, and that strategic leaders hold themselves to high standards of moral and ethical conduct, ultimately creating an enabling environment for leadership succession.
The examples of ethical leadership provided by Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere show the importance of modeling norms of conduct at the highest levels.
Kate Almquist Knopf, Director; Raymond Gilpin, Academic Dean; Daniel Hampton, Chief of Staff, Professor of Practice, Security Studies; Gerald Lefler, Chief, Community/Alumni Affairs; Col. Loïc Mizon, Senior French Rep.; Col. Steven Parker, Senior Military Advisor; Joseph Siegle, Research Director.
The failure of African leaders to address institutional shortcomings caused by their militaries’ colonial roots has contributed to confusion within many African militaries over their role and priorities. Moral leadership is essential for reversing this situation.
If an army does not believe in the cause it is called upon to fight for, and if it does not have faith in the organizations and institutions that generate its orders and directives, it will likely come apart when faced by determined and well-armed insurgents.
The preparation of leaders for higher policy and command responsibilities at the strategic decision-making as well as operational levels is a major requirement for success in the effective and sound management of state affairs and strategic policy, a panel of international officials said at the Africa Center’s Senior Leaders Seminar on June 9, 2014. The... Continue Reading
A virtual academic program on the development and implementation of national security strategy in Africa. This program will provide a forum for a multidisciplinary group of senior officials to explore National Security Strategy Development (NSSD) concepts and processes.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies and the US Institute of Peace (USIP) will convene an academic webinar series that explores the lessons learned of the roles of the security sector and national security strategy development during times of transition from military to civilian rule. The webinar series will provide an opportunity to share evidence-based insights and experiences and their implications for Sudan during its challenging transition to a civilian-led, democratic government.
Africa is slated to hold 13 national elections in 2021. Roughly half of these are in the Horn and the central Sahel. Reflective of the democratic backsliding observed on the continent in recent years, more than a third of these polls are little more than political theater – aimed at garnering a fig leaf of legitimacy for leaders who arguably lack a popular mandate. A fundamental question for this year’s elections, therefore, isn’t just about who will win, but how these leaders will be viewed afterward. Will the same level of legitimacy be conferred on leaders who stay in office via these stage-managed processes? Until these leaders bear a reputational cost for lowering the bar of electoral integrity, this trend can be expected to continue.