Download or read book Fragile States and the Crisis of Regionalism in West Africa written by Gbara Awanen and published by . This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Fragile States and the Crisis of Regionalism in West Africa" explores the economic and security dimensions of regionalism in West Africa, one of the world's poorest and most unstable regions. Set in the region's tumultuous years from the late 1970s onwards, the book delves through West Africa's security and strategic environment, the politics and promise of ECOWAS formation, and the organisation's evolution from being a vehicle for the economic integration of West Africa into a regional security provider. The author sees this transition as a necessary but painful consequence of West Africa's debilitating security environment characterized by conflicts from the late 1970s onwards. Using a five-country case study of legacy conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire, and Nigeria, he notes that whereas these conflicts have not occurred between states, there had been a definite trend towards devastatingly perilous regional spillovers during their active phases. Although much of these conflicts have largely been resolved, or are now frozen, some have mutated into new forms, imperiling regional stability and socio-economic development.
Download or read book The Sahel Crisis and the Need for International Support written by Morten Bøås and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-30 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crisis in the Sahel is serious and multidimensional, and if it continues unabated it could have consequences far beyond the region. As the states of the region are too poor and weak to deal with this on their own, international support is needed. the current international emphasis on the G5 Sahel should change from a focus on more 'boots on the ground' to support for the development agenda of this embryonic international organisation. The Sahel needs a functioning regional framework and the G5 Sahel has some potential; but the only way to harvest this potential is to help fine-tune it to address the underlying causes of conflict. Improving security conditions in the Sahel is absolutely essential; but neither the inhabitants of the region nor the external stakeholders will find security exclusively through military means. The correct priorities must be set. And at the heart of this there must be an improvement in living conditions and a new system of governance that makes it much less possible for jihadist insurgents to appropriate local land-rights conflicts.
Download or read book The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2016-12-30 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most recent Ebola epidemic that began in late 2013 alerted the entire world to the gaps in infectious disease emergency preparedness and response. The regional outbreak that progressed to a significant public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) in a matter of months killed 11,310 and infected more than 28,616. While this outbreak bears some unique distinctions to past outbreaks, many characteristics remain the same and contributed to tragic loss of human life and unnecessary expenditure of capital: insufficient knowledge of the disease, its reservoirs, and its transmission; delayed prevention efforts and treatment; poor control of the disease in hospital settings; and inadequate community and international responses. Recognizing the opportunity to learn from the countless lessons of this epidemic, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in March 2015 to discuss the challenges to successful outbreak responses at the scientific, clinical, and global health levels. Workshop participants explored the epidemic from multiple perspectives, identified important questions about Ebola that remained unanswered, and sought to apply this understanding to the broad challenges posed by Ebola and other emerging pathogens, to prevent the international community from being taken by surprise once again in the face of these threats. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.
Download or read book Regionalism in Africa written by Daniel C Bach and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Africa, which was not long ago discarded as a hopeless and irrelevant region, has become a new 'frontier' for global trade, investment and the conduct of international relations. This book surveys the socio-economic, intellectual and security related dimensions of African regionalisms since the turn of the 20th century. It argues that the continent deserves to be considered as a crucible for conceptualizing and contextualizing the ongoing influence of colonial policies, the emergence of specific integration and security cultures, the spread of cross-border regionalisation processes at the expense of region-building, the interplay between territory, space and trans-state networks, and the intrinsic ambivalence of global frontier narratives. This is emphasized through the identification of distinctive 'threads' of regionalism which, by focusing on genealogies, trajectories and ideals, transcend the binary divide between old and new regionalisms. In doing so, the book opens new perspectives not only on Africa in international relations, but also Africa’s own international relations. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of African politics, African history, regionalism, comparative regionalism, and more broadly to international political economy, international relations and global and regional governance.
Download or read book Nigerian Unity written by Gerald McLoughlin and published by Army War College Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nigeria¿s future as a unified state is in jeopardy. Those who make or execute U.S. policy will find it difficult to advance U.S. interests in Africa without an understanding of the pressures that tear and bind Nigeria. Despite this, the centrifugal forces that tear at the country and the centripetal forces that have kept it whole are not well understood and rarely examined. After establishing Nigeria¿s importance to the United State as a cohesive and functioning state, this monograph examines the historic, religious, cultural, political, physical, demographic, and economic factors that will determine Nigeria¿s fate. It identifies the specific fault lines along which Nigeria may divide. It concludes with practical policy recommendations for the United States to support Nigerians in their efforts to maintain a functioning and integrated state, and, by so doing, advance U.S. interests.
Download or read book African Foreign Policies written by Gilbert M. Khadiagala and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2001 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This treatment of the relationship between domestic and international politics analyzes efforts by African states to manage their external relations amid shifts in the internal, regional, and global environments. The study traverses the continent, identifying patterns of change, examining constraints, and giving attention to the processes that influence policy outcomes. Contributors include scholars of political science, international relations, African studies, and conflict analysis. c. Book News Inc.
Download or read book Regional Integration and Cooperation in West Africa written by Réal P. Lavergne and published by IDRC (International Development Research Centre). This book was released on 1997 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines the failure of regional integration and cooperation to date in West Africa and explores some of the more holistic and economically liberal options for revitalization. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Download or read book Coping with Crisis in African States written by Peter Lewis and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ¿Provides a lucid approach to assessing the factors that create vulnerabilities, or possibilities for resilience, in the face of crisis ... complemented by rich empirical country chapters and clear policy recommendations.¿ ¿Rachel Beatty Riedl, Northwestern University Although large-scale conflicts, political upheavals, and social violence are common problems throughout Africa, individual countries vary greatly in both their susceptibility to these crises and their capacities for responding effectively. What accounts for this variance? How do crises emerge, and how are they resolved? When are unexpected events most likely to spiral into crisis? Are there institutions and policies that can help to manage adverse shocks? The authors of Coping with Crisis in African States assess the capability for crisis management in countries across the continent, shedding new light on the sources of instability in the region, as well as on comparative questions of state capacity and resilience. Peter M. Lewis is associate professor and director of the African Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University¿s School of Advanced International Studies. John W. Harbeson is emeritus professor of political science at the City University of New York Graduate Center and the City College of New York.
Download or read book World Development Report 2011 written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2011 WDR on Conflict, Security and Development underlines the devastating impact of persistent conflict on a country or region's development prospects - noting that the 1.5 billion people living in conflict-affected areas are twice as likely to be in poverty. Its goal is to contribute concrete, practical suggestions on conflict and fragility.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism written by Tanja A. Börzel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Regionalism - the first of its kind - offers a systematic and wide-ranging survey of the scholarship on regionalism, regionalization, and regional governance. Unpacking the major debates, leading authors of the field synthesize the state of the art, provide a guide to the comparative study of regionalism, and identify future avenues of research. Twenty-seven chapters review the theoretical and empirical scholarship with regard to the emergence of regionalism, the institutional design of regional organizations and issue-specific governance, as well as the effects of regionalism and its relationship with processes of regionalization. The authors explore theories of cooperation, integration, and diffusion explaining the rise and the different forms of regionalism. The handbook also discusses the state of the art on the world regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, Eurasia, Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Various chapters survey the literature on regional governance in major issue areas such as security and peace, trade and finance, environment, migration, social and gender policies, as well as democracy and human rights. Finally, the handbook engages in cross-regional comparisons with regard to institutional design, dispute settlement, identities and communities, legitimacy and democracy, as well as inter- and transregionalism.
Download or read book The New Regionalism in Africa written by Fredrik Söderbaum and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume transcends conventional state-centric and formalistic notions of regionalism and theorizes, conceptualizes and analyzes the complexities and contradictions of regionalization processes in contemporary Africa. The collection not only unpacks and theorizes the African state-society complex with regard to new regionalism, but also explicitly integrates the often neglected discourse of human security and human development. In so doing, the book moves the discussion of new regionalism forward at the same time as it adds important insights to security and development. It is organized into three parts. Part I theorizes, conceptualizes and analyzes the new regionalism in Africa from the point of view of the region (e.g. West, East, Central and Southern Africa). The national perspectives in Part II focus on the new regionalism in Africa from the point of view of particular countries or specific state-society complexes, such as Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the enclave of Cabinda, Angola and Zambia. Part III contains two concluding chapters that tie the main threads of the volume together, theoretically and empirically, and discuss the contribution of the analytical framework, the new regionalism approach (NRA) to the larger study of regionalism.
Download or read book The Causes of Instability in Nigeria and Implications for the United States written by Clarence J. Bouchat and published by Army War College Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The political economy problems of Nigeria, the root cause for ethnic, religious, political and economic strife, can be in part addressed indirectly through focused contributions by the U.S. military, especially if regionally aligned units are more thoroughly employed.
Download or read book The Politics of Conflict Economies written by Morten Bøås and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-08-21 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conflict economies cannot be approached in isolation but must instead be contextualised socially and historically. These economies did not emerge in vacuum, but are part and parcel of the history of people and place. This book explores the informal and illicit extraction and trade of minerals and other types of natural resources that takes place in the 'borderlands' during periods of conflict. This type of extraction and marketing, often referred to as ‘conflict trade’ depends on a weak state, and works alongside the structures of the state and its officials. The book emphasises that conflicts do not start as competition over natural resources and in turn suggests that the integration of the extraction and marketing of natural resources only starts once fighting is well under way. Boas argues that although economic agendas are an integral part of African conflicts, the desire to accumulate is not the only motivation. Thus, in order to present a more comprehensive analysis of conflict we need to take into account political, cultural, and historical factors, in addition to the economic dimensions of conflict. This book will be of very strong interest to students and scholars of political economy, conflict studies, international relations and development.
Download or read book Pan Africanism Regional Integration and Development in Africa written by Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume addresses the accomplishments, prospects and challenges of regional integration processes on the African continent. Since regional integration is a process that ebbs and flows according to a wide range of variables such as changing political and economic conditions, implications and factors derived from the vagaries of migration and climate change, it is crucial to be cognizant with how these variables impact regional integration initiatives. The contributors discuss the debates on Pan-Africanism and linking it with ongoing discourses and policies on regional integration in Africa. Other aspects of the book contain some of the most important topic issues such as migration, border management and the sustainable development goals. This content offers readers fresh and innovative perspectives on various aspects of sustainable development and regional growth in Africa.
Download or read book The Political Economy of Armed Conflict written by Karen Ballentine and published by Lynne Rienner Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Globalization, suggest the authors of this collection, is creating new opportunities - some legal, some illicit - for armed factions to pursue their agendas in civil war. Within this context, they analyze the key dynamics of war economies and the challenges posed for conflict resolution and sustainable peace. Thematic chapters consider key issues in the political economy of internal wars, as well as how differing types of resource dependency influence the scope, character, and duration of conflicts. Case studies of Burma, Colombia, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka illustrate a range of ways in which belligerents make use of global markets and the transnational flow of resources. An underlying theme is the opportunities available to the international community to alter the economic incentive structure that inadvertently supports armed conflict.
Download or read book Sub Saharan Africa written by World Bank and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 3. Investing in people.
Download or read book State and Societal Challenges in the Horn of Africa written by Collectif and published by Centro de Estudos Internacionais. This book was released on 2017-08-04 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings to fruition the research done during the CEA-ISCTE project ‘’Monitoring Conflicts in the Horn of Africa’’, reference PTDC/AFR/100460/2008. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) provided funding for this project. The chapters are based on first-hand data collected through fieldwork in the region’s countries between 4 January 2010 and 3 June 2013. The project’s team members and consultants debated their final research findings in a one-day Conference at ISCTE-IUL on 29 April 2013. The following authors contributed to the project’s final publication: Alexandra M. Dias, Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, Aleksi Ylönen, Ana Elisa Cascão, Elsa González Aimé, Manuel João Ramos, Patrick Ferras, Pedro Barge Cunha and Ricardo Real P. Sousa.
