This book examines the role of the emerging African nations in the new international order of the twenty-first century. Since the end of the Cold War, little significance has been placed on the African continent in the security and political considerations of the Western world. However, post-9/11 international security has been redefined, and new challenges have been identified. Thus, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Africa is facing a variety of new security challenges. Africa has become an increasingly important battleground in the fight against terrorism. Since the beginning of 2011, the new revolutions, now known as the Arab Spring, that swept through North Africa have created new challenges for the African continent and are compounding the African peoples’ struggles for poverty alleviation, state stability, security, socio-political and socio-economic development, democracy, and good governance. In addition to these crises of civil war, ethnic conflict, state insecurity, and rampant corruption at all levels, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has ravaged the continent for the past four decades. The only major pan-African organization—the African Union—is unable to lead and defend the continent effectively. At this crucial period when the continent is confronted with these myriad of security challenges, it needs effective, strong leadership that possesses both human and natural resources to play a leadership role in Africa and lead the continent in the new global order of the twenty-first century. The contributors to this volume analyze many of these issues and place them in the wider context of global security.

United States-Africa relations have experienced four major cycles. The first cycle was during the Cold War(1960-1990). During this period, the U.S. developed a one-sided relationship with various African states in which the latter served as "foot soldiers" for the U.S. in its competition with the Soviet Union for global domination. Among other things, the various client African states provided the U.S. with access to airfields, deep water ports and sites for the establishment of various intelligence gathering facilities. In addition, the U.S. used various groups like UNITA led by Jonas Savimbi in Angola to undermine and fight pro-Soviet regimes on the continent. The second cycle of the relationship covered the period 1991-1998. During this time, the U.S. scaled down its security activities in Africa. The major reason was that with the end of the Cold War Africa(with few exceptions like Egypt) was no longer a major front for the promotion of U.S. Security interests. The third cycle commenced in 1998 and ended in 2001. This period was characterized by the U.S.’ search for an approach to frame its security relations with Africa. In this vein, the U.S. undertook various military-security initiatives . The fourth cycle began after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the American homeland. Since then, the U.S. has expanded the scope of its security relations with Africa, as reflected in the establishment of various initiatives and programs. At the core is the prosecution of the American "war on terror." Against this backdrop, this book examines some of the major dimensions of the U.S.’ security relations with Africa, including American security interests on the continent, the "war on terror," AFRICOM, and military cooperation. Using the book’s integrative theoretical framework, each of the chapters in the volume examines the various factors that shape the issue of focus.

The labels 'state fragility' and 'civil war' suggest that security within several African countries has broken down. As Tim Glawion observes, however, while people do experience insecurity in some parts of conflict-affected countries, in other areas they live in relative security. Conducting in-depth field-research between 2014 and 2018, The Security Arena in Africa is based on first-hand insights into South Sudan and the Central African Republic during their ongoing civil wars, and Somalia's breakaway state of Somaliland. Gaining valuable accounts from the people whose security is at stake, this bottom-up perspective on discussions of peace and security tells vivid stories from the field to explore complex security dynamics, making theoretical insights translatable to real-world experiences and revealing how security is created and undermined in these fragile states.

Alternative forms of government and statehood exist in the Middle East and North African regions. The chapters in this volume demonstrate this and explore the notion of power from a non-statist perspective, highlighting the limits of states and their governance. Using empirical evidence from Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, and Mali, the authors explore non-standard cases where power may be retained by a state but must be shared with a number of local actors, resulting in limited statehood and hybrid governance, which leads to competition and sharing of symbolic and political power within a state. This book is intended to prompt a critical reflection on the meaning of governance. It will illuminate informal structures which deserve attention when studying governance and power dynamics within a state or a region. This book was originally published as a special issue of Small Wars & Insurgencies.

After the end of the Cold War and a failed mission in Somalia, the US decided to wash its hands of major military operations in Africa. Within the past few years, however, strategic interests in the region have grown, based largely on the threat of international terrorist group activities there. In 2007, the Bush Administration created a new military presence in Africa, AFRICOM (United States Africa Command), professed to be based not on occupying military or fixed bases, but rather on capacity building for and collaboration with African security forces. Some see AFRICOM as the answer to an African security system crippled by a lack of resources, widespread politicization and institutional weakness. Others claim the program is nothing more than a characteristic attempt by the US to secure its own interests in the region without regard to the actual needs of Africans. A variety of viewpoints on the debate, both from the US and Africa, come together in this collection to examine the objectives and activities of AFRICOM. The result provides the reader with a well-rounded picture of longstanding security challenges in Africa and what might be done to address them. -- Back cover.

With Africa in a period of rapid change, its leaders are faced with both rethinking old notions of state sovereignty and establishing new guidelines governing when and how international actors should intervene in domestic conflicts. This collection explores the increasing interrelationship of the domestic and international security environments of African states - a trend that surprisingly has accelerated with the end of the Cold War.

This book analyzes recent alterations in African security politics, focusing on regionalization of civil wars, transnational aspects of African conflicts, African regional peacekeeping efforts, the privatization of security in Africa, and the role of the UN in peacekeeping.

This new Handbook examines the issues, challenges, and debates surrounding the problem of security in Africa. Africa is home to most of the world's current conflicts, and security is a key issue. However, African security can only be understood by employing different levels of analysis: the individual (human security), the state (national/state security), and the region (regional/international security). Each of these levels provides analytical tools for understanding what could be called the "African security predicament" and these debates are animated by the "new security" issues: immigration, small arms transfers, gangs and domestic crime, HIV/AIDS, transnational crime, poverty, and environmental degradation. African security therefore not only presents concrete challenges for international security but provides a real-world context for challenging conventional conceptions of security. Drawing together contributions from a wide range of key thinkers in the field, the Routledge Handbook of African Security engages with these debates, and is organized into four parts: Part I: The African security predicament in the twenty-first century; Part II: Understanding conflict in Africa; Part III: Regionalism and Africa; Part IV: External influences. This Handbook will be of great interest to students of African politics, human security, global security, war and conflict studies, peacebuilding, and IR in general.