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Download this Security Brief as a PDF: English | Français | Português 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... Continue Reading
Download this Security Brief as a PDF: English | Français | Português Persistent reports of extremist activity from across Africa have deepened concern over the spread of radicalism on the continent. Extremists capitalize on political and security vacuums within Africa’s fragile states to grow their support base and consolidate their strength. Stable states that provide... Continue Reading
Download this Security Brief as a PDF: English | Français | Português Africa is facing an increasingly menacing threat of cocaine trafficking that risks undermining its security structures, nascent democratic institutions, and development progress. Latin America has long faced similar challenges and its experience provides important lessons that can be applied before this expanding threat... Continue Reading
Ethnic conflicts in Africa are often portrayed as having ages-old origins with little prospects for resolution. This Security Brief challenges that notion arguing that a re-diagnosis of the underlying drivers to ethnic violence can lead to more effective and sustainable responses.
Download PDF: English | Français | Português Peace operations have been a principal tool used to curb conflict in Africa over the past decade, with over 40 operations deployed since 2000. This Security Brief takes stock of lessons learned from these experiences and the implications they hold for improving the effectiveness of future peace operations... Continue Reading
African states’ maritime security structures are often misaligned with the challenges posed and need coast guard capabilities and an array of intra-governmental partnerships.
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.
The program examines COIN strategies within the context of African security sector institutional capacity and work to identify African-driven problem-solving approaches to address conflict, violence, and instability that are having a negative impact upon the security of the state and the populace.
Foreign Aid and Democratization: Benin and Niger Compared By Mamoudou Gazibo, African Studies Review, 2005 Two West African states began the 1990s with newly formed democratic governments. By the close of the decade, Benin had further consolidated democracy while Niger experienced a series of destabilizing events culminating in a coup d’état. These differing trajectories are... Continue Reading
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) The Problem with Militias in Somalia: Almost Everyone Wants Them Despite Their Dangers By Vanda Felbab-Brown, UN Centre for Policy Research, April 14, 2020 Militias can present an attractive alternative to state forces but they carry many risks. Somalia, which hosts many militias, reveals why states and... Continue Reading
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) The Problem with Militias in Somalia: Almost Everyone Wants Them Despite Their Dangers By Vanda Felbab-Brown, UN Centre for Policy Research, April 14, 2020 Militias can present an attractive alternative to state forces but they carry many risks. Somalia, which hosts many militias, reveals why states and... Continue Reading
(See more recent readings on this topic here.) Report of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan By United Nations Commission on Human Rights, March 6, 2017 Despite having committed to a peace agreement, South Sudan’s warring actors have shown no sign of following through with any of the requirements therein. In fact, the... Continue Reading