From Insurgency to Governance and Peacebuilding: Africa's Future

Title
From Insurgency to Governance and Peacebuilding: Africa's Future
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Lahai, John Idriss
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5171-9416
Email: jlahai2@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:jlahai2
Lyons, Tanya
Editor
Editor(s): John Idriss Lahai & Tanya Lyons
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Ashgate Publishing
Place of publication
Farnham, United Kingdom
Edition
1
Series
Ashgate plus series in international relations and politics
UNE publication id
une:20768
Abstract
In cognizance to some of the pertinent literature, after the 1960s the political trends in contemporary Africa have been very precarious. For instance, the end of colonial rule only brought an end to one form of conflict (i.e. imperialist wars), but others remain. Through what he referred to as the "new paradigm of war," Smith (2006) correctly concludes that armed conflicts, irrespective of the typology, are no longer a single massive event of military decision that delivers a conclusive political result, rather ... conflicts tend to be timeless, since we are seeking a condition, which then must be maintained until an agreement on a definitive outcome, which may take years or decades [to materialise]. (Smith 2006: 17) For Berdal and Malone (2000: 2), what makes the contemporary conflicts in Africa hard to resolve-amid what makes most of them also "senseless conflicts"-is the inability of combatants to prioritize the defeat of the enemy over the competing individual interests of some participants in the conflict (and the irrational attempts to institutionalize violence as a means of achieving their aims).
Link
Citation
African Frontiers : Insurgency, Governance and Peacebuilding in Postcolonial States, p. 179-186
ISBN
9781472460103
9781472460097
9781472460080
Start page
179
End page
186

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