West African Studies Borders And Conflicts In North And West Africa

This publication examines the role of border regions in shaping patterns of violence since the end of the 1990s in North and West Africa. Using the innovative OECD Spatial Conflict Dynamics indicator (SCDi), the report looks at the growing relationship between political violence and borderlands at the regional level, by analysing more than 170 000 violent events between January 1997 and June 2021 and through the exploration of case studies in the Central and Eastern Sahel.

African governments are increasingly confronted with new forms of political violence. This study maps the evolution of violence across North and West Africa, with a particular focus on Mali, Lake Chad and Libya.

North and West Africa are undergoing rapid urbanisation. While cities and urban areas have always been sites of conflict, given their political and economic importance, many insurgencies, rebellions and separatist movements are associated with rural areas.

Conflicts in North and West Africa have become more violent and widespread than in the past. They have also become more difficult to resolve due to the complex relationships between a growing number of belligerents with diverging agendas. This report maps conflict networks and the evolution of rivalries and alliances in 21 North and West African countries.

This book looks at the ways African borders impact war and conflict, as well as the ways continental integration could contribute towards cooperation, peace and well-being in Africa. African borders or borderlands can be a source of problems and opportunity. There is often a historical, geospatial and geopolitical architecture rooted in trajectories of war, conflict and instability, which could be transformed into those of peace, regional and continental integration and development. An example is the cross-border and regional response to the Boko Haram insurgency in West Africa. This book engages with cross-border forms of cooperation and opportunity in Africa. It considers initiatives and innovations which can be put in place or are already being employed on the ground, within the current regional and continental integration projects. Another important element is that of cross-border informality, which similarly provides a ready resource that, if properly harnessed and regulated, could unleash the development potential of African borders and borderlands. Students and scholars within Geography, International Relations and Border Studies will find this book useful. It will also benefit civil society practitioners, policymakers and activists in the NGO sector interested in issues such as migration, social cohesion, citizenship and local development.

By examining three centuries of history, this book shows how vital border regions have been in shaping states and social contracts.

This book explains the structure and geographical and organisational mobility of criminal and migratory movements in the Sahara and the Sahel with a view to helping establish better development strategies for the region.

This atlas describes the West African region, its population, settlement, territories, its economy and its vulnerabilities. It analyses the developments and the ways in which West Africa is conforming to a constantly changing global environment.