Regimes Of Responsibility In Africa

Regimes of Responsibility in Africa analyses the transformations that discourses and practices of responsibility have undergone in Africa. By doing so, this collection develops a stronger grasp of the specific political, economic and social transformations taking place today in Africa. At the same time, while focusing on case studies from the African continent, the work enters into a dialogue with the emerging corpus of studies in the field of ethics, adding to it a set of analytical perspectives that can help further enlarge its theoretical and geographical scope.

The authors assert that sovereignty can no longer be seen as a protection against interference, but as a charge of responsibility where the state is accountable to both domestic and external constituencies. In internal conflicts in Africa, sovereign states have often failed to take responsibility for their own citizens' welfare and for the humanitarian consequences of conflict, leaving the victims with no assistance. This book shows how that responsibility can be exercised by states over their own population, and by other states in assistance to their fellow sovereigns. Sovereignty as Responsibility presents a framework that should guide both national governments and the international community in discharging their respective responsibilities. Broad principles are developed by examining identity as a potential source of conflict, governance as a matter of managing conflict, and economics as a policy field for deterring conflict. Considering conflict management, political stability, economic development, and social welfare as functions of governance, the authors develop strategies, guidelines, and roles for its responsible exercise. Some African governments, such as South Africa in the 1990s and Ghana since 1980, have demonstrated impressive gains against these standards, while others, such as Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sudan, have failed. Opportunities for making sovereignty more responsible and improving the management of conflicts are examined at the regional and international levels. The lessons from the mixed successes of regional conflict management actions, such as the West African intervention in Liberia, the East African mediation in Sudan, and international efforts to urge talks to end the conflict in Angola, indicate friends and neighbors outside the state in conflict have important roles to play in increasing sovereign responsibility. Approaching conflict management from the perspective of the responsibilities of sovereignt

The classic work of political, economic, and historical analysis, powerfully introduced by Angela Davis In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, South America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed 20th century Jamaica's most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People's Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney would be assassinated. In his magnum opus, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Rodney incisively argues that grasping "the great divergence" between the west and the rest can only be explained as the exploitation of the latter by the former. This meticulously researched analysis of the abiding repercussions of European colonialism on the continent of Africa has not only informed decades of scholarship and activism, it remains an indispensable study for grasping global inequality today.

The sixth edition of Africa in World Politics focuses on challenges African states face in constructing viable political economies in contexts both of familiar domestic challenges and an unprecedented mix of engagements, opportunities, and threats emanating from a turbulent and rapidly changing international order. This text, including new chapters on Nigeria and the influence of party politics on economic development, remains an invaluable resource for students of African politics seeking to navigate the continent's complex political and economic landscapes. Revised chapters consider both the extent and the limits of continued healthy growth rates in many countries; the impacts of investments by China and other BRICS countries; plateaus and some reversals in progress on human rights and democratization; dimensions of chronic state weakness deepened by insurgencies, including some that are connected to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State; and peacebuilding efforts struggling to uphold responsible sovereignty in the Sudans, the Great Lakes region, and elsewhere.

The African Union is the only intergovernmental organization to make the responsibility to protect part of its foundational text Article 4(h) of its Constitutive Act. Although interventions have occurred since the Constitutive Act came into force the AU Assembly has not invoked Article 4(h) explicitly. This book explores the potential application of this provision and the legal and policy challenges implementation faces, given that the use of force penetrates the principles of state sovereignty and non-intervention, cornerstones upon which the AU is founded. The book brings together experts in the field to analyse the legal, policy and practical aspects of implementing Article 4(h).

Towards an African Peace and Security Regime: Continental embeddedness, transnational linkages, strategic relevance provides an informed and critical reflection on the adequacy of the emerging African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to the medium- and long-term challenges and opportunities of conflict prevention, management and resolution in Africa. Complementary to the editors’ Africa’s New Peace and Security Architecture: Implementing norms, institutionalising solutions (Ashgate 2010), this volume revolves around three main areas of focus: the continental ‘embeddedness’ of norms, values and processes required for the gradual coming into shape of the African peace and security regime; its transnational linkages as well as the wider collective security environment; and the empirical analysis of the connections between the continental level and the regional economic communities with case-studies on ECOWAS, SADC and COMESA.

The notion of the "responsibility to protect" has made some progress in recent years, particularly in Africa. For example, the African Union's (AU) new peace and security agenda resonates with the prevention-reaction-rebuilding continuum outlined in the ICISS [International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty] report. This monograph draws on case studies of the AU and other international engagements in Burundi and Darfur, Sudan, to explore the opportunities and challenges operationalising the responsibility to protect in Africa.

Originally published in 1975, this book examines the achievements of, and problems encountered by, African military regimes in office. It begins with 2 chapters discussing trends in the formation and organization of African armies and the influence on these armies of the colonial legacy. The author then studies 6 case histories in detail. His findings show that, though there are certain typical commonalities, each regime has its own particular characteristics. This will be of interest to students of African, military and colonial studies.