Artikler

Indhold : Nr. 1 : Årgang 10 : 2007

 

Tema

Academic Controversies on African Conflicts

by Bjørn Møller

Demokrati som konfliktløsning i Afrika?

af Jens Rudbeck

Operation Fred i Afrika: Kan FN løfte opgaven?

af Louise Andersen

Når få har for meget og mange for lidt: Naturressourcers rolle i afrikanske borgerkrige

af Steen Nordstrøm

The transformation of ECOWAS: towards an emerging security regime?

by Emmanuel Kwesi Aning

Uden for tema

Terror og religion - upersonlighedens eskatologi

af Johannes Adamsen

Bogomtaler

 

Hvad er sammenhængen mellem udvikling og konflikt i Afrika? Det er kernespørgsmålet i dette nummer af Politik, og svaret er på ingen måde entydigt. Siden Sovjetunionens sammenbrud og den Kolde Krigs afslutning har verden set et fald i antallet af krige. Efter den målestok er verden blevet mere sikker. Der er dog et kontinent, hvor denne tendens ikke er slået igennem: Afrika. Her går kurven i den modsatte retning. Kontinentet har op igennem 1990’erne og til i dag haft et kedeligt, men stabilt højt niveau af væbnede konflikter. Hvad skyldes denne overrepræsentation? Hvorfor befinder så mange lande syd for Sahara sig i denne onde cirkel, hvor en ny konflikt næsten altid står klar til at overtage den forrige?  Vi bliver i medierne og i den offentlige debat ofte præsenteret for forklaringer, der peger på faktorer som etnicitet og underudvikling. Ofte ses underudvikling som noget konfliktgenererende i sig selv. For at bryde den onde cirkel skal de afrikanske lande udvikle demokratiske institutioner, stabile økonomier, uafhængige domstole etc. Løsningen er udvikling. Jo mere udvikling, jo mindre konflikt. Sådan lyder mantraet, men sådan befinder det sig imidlertid ikke altid i virkeligheden. I policy-miljøet er der i de senere år kommet et øget fokus på, hvordan dårligt forvaltet udvikling ofte kan skabe nye konflikter.

 

I dette nummer af Tidsskriftet Politik kigger vi nærmere på nogle af disse udviklingsparadokser. Målet er at give et mere nuanceret billede af en kompleks virkelighed, der ofte fremstilles i et simplificeret monokausalt format. Her gives ingen lette svar, men forhåbentligt kan vi bidrage med en større indsigt i og forståelse af de udfordringer, Afrika står overfor.

 

Temanummeret er udgivet med støtte fra Danidas oplysningsbevilling.

 

Abstracts:

 

Academic Controversies on African Conflicts

Bjørn Møller, Senior Researcher, DIIS

Lecturer at the Center of African Studies, University of Copenhagen 

 

 

The article first records the debate about who is entitled to study Africa and whether generalisations are permissible. It proceeds to the role of resources, identity issues and state weaknesses in the causality of armed conflict and concludes with some consideration of the possible role of outside actors. Even though the focus is througout on academic debates, the article also gives some consideration to the political implications of the various theories.  

 

 

 

When few have too much and many too little: The role of Natural Resources in African Civil Wars

Steen Nordstrøm, Ph.d.-studerende, Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier

 

 

This article explores the links between natural resources and armed conflict in an African context. It is argued that the existing literature, and the explanations it posits, can be classified according to the resources in focus. The neo-malthusian explanation is concerned with renewable resources whereas the greed-based explanation addresses non-renewable resources. Both explanations, however, rely on economic assumptions about rational behaviour in conflict. This is shown to be at odds with empirical evidence and hence the need for a new theoretical perspective is warranted. It is argued that insights from political psychology, and especially prospect theory, about variation in risk propensity are applicable to exactly the risky political and economic choices actors in natural resource conflicts face on the African continent.

 

 

Operation Peace in Africa: Is the UN capable?

Louise Andersen, Ph.D studerende, Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier og Institut for Statskundskab, Københavns Universitet

 

 

Since 2003, the demand for ambitious UN peacebuilding operations in Africa has been on the rise. Based on readings of three recent UN reports, the article analyses how the UN as an organization is attempting to strengthen and improve its efforts and rise to the challenge. Lessons learned from previous peacebuilding highlight the need for integrated and coherent international engagement as well as the need for strong local ownership. Current emphasis within the UN seems, however, to be placed almost exclusively on the need to strengthen international coherency. The article suggests that this bias may come at the expense of the equally needed demand for stronger local ownership.

 

 

Democracy as a solution to conflicts in Africa?

Jens Rudbeck, Ph.D., ekstern lektor ved Institut for Statskundskab, KU og Institut for Samfund og Globalisering, RUC.

 

 

Since the end of the Cold War, building democratic institutions has been a central element in the international community’s efforts to promote peace and stability in Africa’s war-shattered countries. The limited success of the UN’s peace-building missions has challenged the wisdom of the strategy. This article argues that democracy - in the long run - is the best guarantee for peace but the transition to democracy is prone to outbreaks of violence. A strong and long-term military engagement by UN forces is, accordingly, pivotal to the stability and security of the new democracies. Moreover, to prevent existing tension between ethnic groups from escalating into violence as a consequence of the new democratic institutions, the peace-building must address the specific situation in each African country. As UN missions typically last a mere three to five years and as most programs are based on the principle of one-size-fits-all, the transitions have been vulnerable to renewed violence.

 

 

 

The transformation of ECOWAS: towards an emerging security regime?

Emmanuel Kwesi Aning, PhD, Head, Conflict Prevention, Management & Resolution, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre

 

 

This paper discusses the efforts by West African states to deepen their economic integration scheme by including security issues. It situates the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in institutionalising particular norms and principles within the framework of a security regime analysis. This paper’s main argument is that institutions matter and, as a result of deepening institutionalisation processes, there is a sense of ‘eco-optimism’ in West Africa. However, such encouraging processes are also characterised by several tensions straddling elite and national interest issues. Despite these difficulties, this paper argues that deepening integration and closer collaboration in the security arena is contributing to closer state cooperation in West Africa. These emerging processes are tested with empirical discussions that examine how ECOWAS reacted to three security issues that challenged the norms and values it sought to establish.

 

 

 

 

Terror and religion - the eschatology of the impersonal

Johannes Adamsen, Forskningslektor, ph.d., Afdeling for Systematisk Teologi, Aarhus Universitet

 

 

According to scientific as well as more popular explanation, the strange and scaring phenomenon of suicidal terrorism tends to be seen as an opposite to Western secular reason. Taking into consideration, however, a concept made known by Eric Voegelin, 'pneumapathology', and analyzing especially Islamicist suicidal terrorism as apocalypticism, it is possible to see this phenomenon in a new light.

One basic premise for the article is that an understanding of the people involved have to take both the political, historical, and economical background seriously, and simultaneously avoiding doing away with the self-understanding of the terrorists.