Search our video library for
"Rule of Law"
Program Materials
This webinar will provide a forum for African experts to explore the strengths and weaknesses of security sector oversight by a range of formal institutions internal to the state that are designed and committed to bolstering democratic and civilian control of the security sector.
Program Materials
A virtual academic program for African parliamentarians and their staff to analyze current trends, challenges, and innovations in the work of legislatures to foster democratic and civilian control of security sectors across the continent. Tools and techniques to bolster parliamentary oversight, accountability, and outreach efforts on defense and security are discussed throughout.
Spotlight
published by Joseph Siegle and Candace Cook
on January 11, 2022
Responding to the coups, conflicts, and other derailments of democratic processes in recent years, Africa’s 2022 elections are, in large part, an effort to right the democratic ship of state on the continent.
Program Materials
This webinar series provides analysis of border security and governance challenges that African states are facing across the continent in multiple criminal markets, and offers insight into the multi-sectoral responses that security sector leaders are part of mounting to build community resilience to such challenges.
Spotlight
published by Nathaniel Allen and Catherine Lena Kelly
on January 4, 2022
African governments are using the pretext of security to restrict digital communications and citizens’ rights. In the process, they are inadvertently contributing to economic losses and greater instability.
Infographic
published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies
on October 29, 2021
Global warming is contributing to more and extended heat waves, a tripling of droughts, a quadrupling of storms, and a tenfold increase in flooding in Africa since the 1970s—exacerbating security threats on the continent.
Program Materials
A virtual academic program cohosted with the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism that focuses on effective community policing as a tool for countering violent extremism. This program provides an opportunity to capture and share insights, experiences, and lessons, among countries and across regions, about both the implementation challenges in community policing and the practical experiences in bridging gaps between the security sector and the communities they are entrusted with protecting and serving
Spotlight
published by Joseph Siegle
on September 24, 2021
Russia’s strategic objective of degrading the model of democratic governance in Africa is frequently effected through the cooption of isolated African leaders.
Term limit norms in Africa have been deteriorating rapidly since 2015, reversing a positive trend over the previous two decades. This trend has important implications since longer presidential tenures are linked to increased corruption, reduced civil liberties, and higher rates of conflict. Even after term limit restrictions have been lifted, there is a pattern of incumbents manipulating electoral outcomes to stay in power. This reflects the declining popularity of these leaders and points to the self-interested motivations for their extended tenures vis-à-vis broader service to the public. It further highlights that the evasion of term limits does not happen in isolation but is part of a broader pattern of undermining the rule of law and weakening democratic institutions. Failure to reverse the downturn in respect for term limits risks bringing Africa back to an era of de facto “presidents for life” and one-party states.
Recommended research
published by Joseph Siegle and Candace Cook
on July 31, 2021
Term limit norms in Africa have been deteriorating rapidly since 2015, reversing a positive trend over the previous two decades. This trend has important implications since longer presidential tenures are linked to increased corruption, reduced civil liberties, and higher rates of conflict. Even after term limit restrictions have been lifted, there is a pattern of... Continue Reading
Spotlight
published by Luka Biong Deng Kuol
on June 29, 2021
The catastrophic levels of instability that have engulfed South Sudan since 2013 demand a restructuring of governance and security institutions to alter the tragic trajectory of Africa’s youngest state.
While Russia’s engagements in Africa are often viewed as opportunistic, in the space of a few years Moscow has been able to gain a foothold in the southern Mediterranean, become a powerbroker in geographically strategic countries, and undermine democratic norms on the continent.