Conflict and Security in Africa

Spanning the period from the cold war to the 'war on terror', examines the political economy dynamics of security and insecurity on the continent, as well as its implications for political actions.

Spanning the period from the cold war to the 'war on terror', examines the political economy dynamics of security and insecurity on the continent, as well as its implications for political actions.


More than any other part of the globe, Africa has become associated with conflict, insecurity and human rights atrocities. In the popular imagination and the media, overpopulation, environmental degradation and ethnic hatred dominate accounts of African violence, while in academic and policy-making circles, conflict and insecurity have also come to occupy centre stage, with resource-hungry warlords and notions of 'greed' and 'grievance' playing key explanatory roles. Since the attacks of 9/11, there has also been mounting concern that the continent's so-called 'ungoverned spaces' will provide safe havens for terrorists intent on destroying Western civilization.

TheReview of African Political Economy has engaged extensively with issues of conflict and security, both analysing on-going conflicts and often challenging predominant modes of explanation and interpretation. ThisReview of African Political Economy Reader provides a timely, comprehensive and critical contribution to contemporary debates about conflict and security on the continent. The first section, covers some of the continent's main post-Cold War conflicts and demonstrates their global connections. The articles also discuss the so-called 'resource curse', as well as the global arms trade, and reveal the complexities of the relationship between the economic and the political. The second section focuses on security as part of post-Cold War global governance, and discusses the effects of liberal peace-building as well as the link between development assistance and the 'war on terror'. The final section examines life as it continues in conditions of war and shows how insecurity reconfigures urban space, transforms social order, identities and authority.

Rita Abrahamsen is Professor in the Graduate School of Publicand International Affairs, University of Ottawa, Canada
Published in association with ROAPE
ROAPE African Readers
Series Editors: Tunde Zack-Williams & Ray Bush

Introduction: Conflict & Security in Africa. PART I: GLOBAL ECONOMIES, STATE COLLAPSE & CONFLICTS - Rita Abrahamsen
Ironies of Post-Cold War Structural Adjustment in Sierra Leone. (No. 67, 1996) - William Reno
Timber Booms, State Busts: The Political Economy of Liberian Timber. (No. 101, 2004) - Patrick B. Johnston
Petro-Insurgency or Criminal Syndicate? Conflict & Violence in the Niger Delta. (No.114, 2007) - Michael J. Watts
Oil as the 'Curse' of Conflict in Africa: Peering through the Smoke & Mirrors. (No. 114, 2007) - Cyril I. Obi
Defence Expenditures, Arms Procurement & Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa. (No. 121, 2009) PART II: GLOBAL SECURITY GOVERNANCE
Somalia: 'They Created a Desert & Called it Peace(building'). (No. 120, 2009) - Ken Menkhaus
The Burundi Peace Negotiations: An African Experience of Peace-Making. (No. 112, 2007) PART III: CULTURES OF CONFLICT & INSECURITY - Patricia Daley
Blair's Africa: The Politics of Securitization & Fear. (Alternatives 30, 2005) - Rita Abrahamsen
Abductions, Kidnappings & Killings in the Sahel and Sahara. (No. 38, 2011) SECTION 3: CULTURES OF CONFLICT& INSECURITY - Franklin Charles Graham IV
The Political Economy of Sacrifice:Kinois & the State. (No. 93/94, 2002) - Theodore Trefon
A City under Siege: Banditry & Modes of Accumulation in Nairobi, 1991-2004. (No. 106, 2005) - Musambayi Katumanga
Côte d'Ivoire: Patriotism, Ethnonationalism & other African Modes of Self-writing. (African Affairs 2006, 105 (421): 535-52) - Richard Banegas
Beyond Civil Society: Child Soldiers as Citizens in Mozambique. (No. 80, 1999) - Carol B. Thompson