This book concerns the United Nations’ peacemaking, peacekeeping, peace-building, and post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Africa from 1960 to 2021. Succinctly discussed are historic and contemporary peace, security, and economic engagements within 18 countries spanning eight African regions: the Great Lakes; the Economic Community of Central African States; East Africa; the Horn of Africa; North Africa; the Sahel Region; West Africa; and Southern Africa. The book develops a neo-realist and imperialist critique that discusses how resource-rich, conflict-ridden states have become easy targets for capitalists, terrorists, and transnational crime, aligned to geostrategic parochial interests. Critically argued is that endogenous economic growth factors, if applied effectively, can achieve both peace and security, and meet the Global Sustainable Development Goals. Such efforts require constructive engagement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US. However, the book contends that the cornerstone of multilateral engagement involves Africa’s 55 states and the African Union’s three major pillars: the Peace and Security Council, the African Governance Architecture, and the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Development Centre, which have the ability to move resource-rich, conflict-ridden states out of transnational crime and poverty. This book offers wide-ranging analyses of contemporary African diplomacy and a compelling critique of UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa, which resonates to scholars of international relations, peace and conflict studies, and African politics.

Provides a context for understanding West Africa's security dilemmas, highlighting the link between failures of economic development, governance, and democratization on the one hand and military insecurity and violent conflicts on the other.

This open access book on the state of peacebuilding in Africa brings together the work of distinguished scholars, practitioners, and decision makers to reflect on key experiences and lessons learned in peacebuilding in Africa over the past half century. The core themes addressed by the contributors include conflict prevention, mediation, and management; post-conflict reconstruction, justice and Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration; the role of women, religion, humanitarianism, grassroots organizations, and early warning systems; and the impact of global, regional, and continental bodies. The book's thematic chapters are complemented by six country/region case studies: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan/South Sudan, Mozambique and the Sahel/Mali. Each chapter concludes with a set of key lessons learned that could be used to inform the building of a more sustainable peace in Africa. The State of Peacebuilding in Africa was born out of the activities of the Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding (SVNP), a Carnegie-funded, continent-wide network of African organizations that works with the Wilson Center to bring African knowledge and perspectives to U.S., African, and international policy on peacebuilding in Africa. The research for this book was made possible by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.

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.

This handbook offers a critical assessment of the African agenda for conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding; the challenges and opportunities facing Africa’s regional organisations in their efforts towards building sustainable peace on the continent; and the role of external actors, including the United Nations, Britain, France, and South Asian troop-contributing countries. In so doing, it revisits the late Ali Mazrui’s concept of Pax Africana, calling on Africans to take responsibility for peace and security on their own continent. The creation of the African Union, in 2002, was an important step towards realising this ambition, and has led to the development of a new continental architecture for more robust conflict management. But, as the volume’s authors show, the quest for Pax Africana faces challenges. Combining thematic analyses and case studies, this book will be of interest to both scholars and policymakers working on peace, security, and governance issues in Africa.

“I have seen the UN perform on a changing global stage in many UN missions. This book examines how the UN must continue to evolve amongst changing state actors, differing regional organisations and a constant global paradigm shift. It is essential material for enhancing one’s understanding of the nature of international conflict and for the continued relevance of the UN as a key stakeholder and participant in world affairs.”—Maj. Gen. Kristin Lund, Head of Mission and Chief of Staff, UN peacekeeping mission in the Middle East (UNTSO) “This outstanding collection is a must-read for anyone interested in the central challenges of peacekeeping today. From big ideas about changes in global order, to more focused analyses of policing and the protection of civilians, this book provides a comprehensive overview of where peacekeeping is now, and what we may expect in the future.”—Lise Morjé Howard, Associate Professor, Georgetown University “The book analyses recent developments in UN peacekeeping in the context of the historic changes underway in the global order. I would recommend it to policy makers, peacekeepers and scholars who wish to understand, optimise and improve the effectiveness of modern peacekeeping.”—Lt. Gen. Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz, former Force Commander in the UN missions in the DRC (MONUSCO) and Haiti (MINUSTAH) “Peacekeeping has been the most visible UN activity in its primary mandate to maintain international peace and security. In a world in disarray, as security threats mutate and the world order shifts away from US primacy and fresh challenges arise, the UN must respond with nimbleness and flexibility to stay relevant. This exceptional collection of analyses by experts from both the global North and South will be of interest to practitioners and scholars alike – highly recommended.”—Ramesh Thakur, Professor, Australian National University “Peacekeeping is not what it was even a decade ago: global power is shifting, new types of conflicts are emerging, and demands on the United Nations and regional organizations are growing. Anyone interested in contemporary conflict resolution and the changing character of international peace operations should read this excellent book.”—Roland Paris, Professor of International Affairs, University of Ottawa “This book is an insightful and forward-looking scholarly contribution to debates within the United Nations. It shows how profound the recent changes affecting peace operations are and pushes us all to rethink our assumptions about conflict, peace and the role of international organizations. It could not come at a better moment.”—Jean-Marie Guehenno, UN High-level Advisory Board on Mediation, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations/div This open access book explores how UN peace operations are adapting to four transformational trends in the changing global order: (1) the rebalancing of relations between states of the global North and the global South; (2) the rise of regional organisations as providers of peace; (3) the rise of violent extremism and fundamentalist non-state actors; and (4) increasing demands from non-state actors for greater emphasis on human security. It identifies emerging conflict and peace trends (robustness of responses, rise of non-state threats, cross-state conflicts) and puts them in the context of tectonic shifts in the global order (rise of emerging powers, North–South rebalancing, emergence of regional organisations as providers of peace). The volume stimulates a discussion between practitioners and academics from the global North and South, and offers an analysis of how the international community collectively makes sense of the changing global order and its implications for UN peace operations. /div

Multilateral organizations - the United Nations (UN) in particular - have played, and continue to play, an important role in shaping the security sector reform (SSR) agenda, both in terms of policy development and the provision of support to a wide range of national SSR processes. This volume presents a variety of perspectives on UN support to SSR, past and present, with attention to policy and operational practice. Drawing from the experience of UN practitioners combined with external experts on SSR, this volume offers an in-depth exploration of the UN approach to SSR from a global perspective.

This book defines the relationship between gender and international security, analyzing and critiquing international security theory and practice from a gendered perspective. Gender issues have an important place in the international security landscape, but have been neglected both in the theory and practice of international security. The passage and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (on Security Council operations), the integration of gender concerns into peacekeeping, the management of refugees, post-conflict disarmament and reintegration and protection for non-combatants in times of war shows the increasing importance of gender sensitivity for actors on all fronts in global security. This book aims to improve the quality and quantity of conversations between feminist security studies and security studies more generally, in order to demonstrate the importance of gender analysis to the study of international security, and to expand the feminist research program in Security Studies. The chapters included in this book not only challenge the assumed irrelevance of gender, they argue that gender is not a subsection of security studies to be compartmentalized or briefly considered as a side issue. Rather, the contributors argue that gender is conceptually, empirically, and normatively essential to studying international security. They do so by critiquing and reconstructing key concepts of and theories in international security, by looking for the increasingly complex roles women play as security actors, and by looking at various contemporary security issues through gendered lenses. Together, these chapters make the case that accurate, rigorous, and ethical scholarship of international security cannot be produced without taking account of women’s presence in or the gendering of world politics. This book will be of interest to all students of critical security studies, gender studies and International Relations in general. Laura Sjoberg is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. She has a Phd in International Relations and Gender Studies from the University of Southern California and is the author of Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq (2006) and, with Caron Gentry, Mothers, Monsters, Whores: Women's Violence in Global Politics (2007)

This book concerns the United Nations’ peacemaking, peacekeeping, peace-building, and post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Africa from 1960 to 2021. Succinctly discussed are historic and contemporary peace, security, and economic engagements within 18 countries spanning eight African regions: the Great Lakes; the Economic Community of Central African States; East Africa; the Horn of Africa; North Africa; the Sahel Region; West Africa; and Southern Africa. The book develops a neo-realist and imperialist critique that discusses how resource-rich, conflict-ridden states have become easy targets for capitalists, terrorists, and transnational crime, aligned to geostrategic parochial interests. Critically argued is that endogenous economic growth factors, if applied effectively, can achieve both peace and security, and meet the Global Sustainable Development Goals. Such efforts require constructive engagement with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US. However, the book contends that the cornerstone of multilateral engagement involves Africa’s 55 states and the African Union’s three major pillars: the Peace and Security Council, the African Governance Architecture, and the Post-Conflict Reconstruction Development Centre, which have the ability to move resource-rich, conflict-ridden states out of transnational crime and poverty. This book offers wide-ranging analyses of contemporary African diplomacy and a compelling critique of UN peacekeeping efforts in Africa, which resonates to scholars of international relations, peace and conflict studies, and African politics.

Since the end of the Cold War, United Nations peace operations have become an established and prominent feature of world politics. From Liberia to East Timor, the UN now carries out extensive governance-related functions and is a significant political force in Southern states and societies. Here Richard Al-Qaq leads us to a radical new understanding of the UN and its role in international politics. He uncovers the political and socio-economic import of such 'peace' activities for subject societies, and raises important questions about the functioning and dynamics of the global political order. A critical view of the internal process of programmatic reform within the UN is elaborated by detailed studies of the politics of UN peace operations in three seminal cases of the 1990s, in Somalia, Rwanda and Angola. This book is essential for understanding the new role of the UN, especially in Africa, and the politics of so-called humanitarian intervention and peace-building.