Justice and Rule of Law Key to African Security
The integration of justice initiatives within conventional security efforts can mitigate conflict, improve societal resilience, and build a stronger culture supportive of the rule of law.
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The integration of justice initiatives within conventional security efforts can mitigate conflict, improve societal resilience, and build a stronger culture supportive of the rule of law.
In Africa, 39 out of 54 countries have access to 26,000 nautical miles of coastline and 13 million square kilometers of exclusive economic zones. These areas face numerous security threats including transnational organized crime, illegal fishing, environmental crimes and degradation, and climate change. The 2050 Africa Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS) includes the adoption of Combined Exclusive Maritime Zone of Africa (CEMZA), with the aim of improving maritime capacity to control this strategic domain, as well as ensuring that these key resources benefit all Africans.
The confluence between farmer-herder violence, ethnicity, and extremist groups requires a multitiered response emphasizing a people-centric approach.
Lt. Col. Alou Boi Diarra's research found a strong link between farmer-herder conflict and an emphasis on state security over human security.
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Professor of Practice and Director of Engagement. Areas of Expertise: East Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, peacekeeping, global health and development policy, U.S.-Africa policy, and the role of Congress in foreign relations.
The effects of desertification are widespread and growing worse, contributing to heightened resource competition, conflict, and hunger.
Conflicts of interest within Africa's fisheries sector enable unsustainable exploitation by foreign fishing firms and undercut the political will needed to build more robust surveillance and prosecutorial capacity.
December 2016 Video: Africa’s Contemporary Security Trends, Joseph Siegle Video: Democratic Transitions and Security in Africa, Dorina Bekoe Video: Resource Management and Conflict, Willene Johnson Video: Countering Violent Extremism in Africa, Angela Martin Video: Maritime Safety and Security in Africa, Assis Malaquias Video: Collective Approaches to Security, Dorina Bekoe Video: Climate Change in Africa, James... Continue Reading
The Africa Center advances African security by expanding understanding, providing a trusted platform for dialogue, building enduring partnerships, and catalyzing strategic solutions.
Estimates 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.
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) Beyond Internal Conflict: The Emergent Practice of Climate Security By Joshua W Busby, Journal of Peace Research, December 28, 2020 Challenges to climate-related security include but are not limited to resource competition, shocks to food security, climate-induced migration, transboundary water management, and unintended consequences from climate policies.... Continue Reading
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 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.