Africa

Africa’s Indefensible Delay

A combination of over ambition, honest expectation and donor dependence had trumped a highly needed continental military, a quick reaction capacity that would enable Africans to respond swiftly to a crisis unhampered by any heavy political and instrumental burdens. At the July…

Africa, America, and the Rest

The US has outlined a sort of new, though jumbled policy, on Africa. While America seems enthusiastic about new commercial ties with the continent the new strategy is largely composed of old hysteria, lectures, and chapters of previous frenzy psychological and social…

Africa’s Catch of Circling the Wagons with US Special Forces

Common defense and security policy has been the constant theme of the African Union. Ten years after a declaration of principles on African ownership we are witnessing subdued emotions and reversal of fortunes. Conversely…

How best to use the BRICS

The upcoming BRICS Summit marks the start of a new phase in Cyril Ramaphosa’s international standing. Though the hype around BRICS has noticeably died down new chair South Africa must use the opportunity to revitalize the bloc in a way it helps alternative political forces. Central…

The Security Debate Africa Needs

The most flagrant and widely deplored contradiction is between Africa’s self-image of owning its own security and a reality in which many of its territories are overrun by foreign forces and its united military projections are sharply limited, its coastline fully…

Key Issues on South Africa and the Fragile Edges of African Security.

The development of African approaches to peace building in the last decade is not only in response to new types of conflicts and the need to align with the prevailing normative framework but was also…

Trump inflicting considerable damage on Africa

As far as Africa is concerned Trump is present where he shouldn’t be and absent where he should be.

President Trump is largely vague on Africa except in the area of ‘the war on terror’ and the killing of civilians. When it…

The African Union and IGAD hold a Security Sector Reform Sensitization Workshop for the East Africa Region

Last Updated on Tuesday 03 October 2017

AFRICOM is an African anomaly

Suleiman B.

From time to time since George W. Bush administration there have been outbreaks of melancholy about the US Africa Command or AFRICOM. The explanation is not hard to find: the memory of imperial order does not contrast favorably with such…

Why NATO should not grow within the AU

The underpinnings of NATO’s engagement in Africa are at best sudden and controversial, at worst counterproductive.

It has now become quite clear that statements by the new American president D. Trump during his election campaign about…