War and conflict in Africa

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Title:

War and conflict in Africa

Author:

Williams, Paul D., 1975-

ISBN:

9780745645445

9780745645452

Personal Author:

Williams, Paul D., 1975-

Publication Information:

Cambridge : Polity, 2011.

Physical Description:

xiv, 306 p. : ill., maps ; 25 cm.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I Contexts -- 1.Counting Africa's Conflicts (and their Casualties) -- 2.The Terrain of Struggle -- pt. II Ingredients -- 3.Neopatrimonialism -- 4.Resources -- 5.Sovereignty -- 6.Ethnicity -- 7.Religion -- pt. III Responses -- 8.Organization-Building -- 9.Peacemaking -- 10.Peacekeeping -- 11.Aid.

Abstract:

"After the Cold War, Africa earned the dubious distinction of being the world's most bloody continent. But how can we explain this proliferation of armed conflicts? What caused them and what were their main characteristics? And what did the world's governments do to stop them? In addressing these and other questions, Paul Williams offers the first comparative assessment of more than three hundred armed conflicts which took place in Africa between 1990 and 2009--from the continental catastrophe in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the environmental disaster in the Niger Delta and mass atrocities in Sudan. Taking a broad comparative approach to examine the political contexts in which these wars occurred, he explores the key ingredients that provoked them and the major international responses undertaken to deliver lasting peace"--P. [4] of cover.

Subject Term:

Politics and war -- Africa -- History.

International cooperation.

Geographic Term:

Africa -- Politics and government -- 1960-

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025557576	303.66096 W726W 2011	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

After the Cold War, Africa earned the dubious distinction of being the world's most bloody continent. But how can we explain this proliferation of armed conflicts? What caused them and what were their main characteristics? And what did the world's governments do to stop them?

In this fully revised and updated second edition of his popular text, Paul Williams offers an in-depth and wide-ranging assessment of more than six hundred armed conflicts which took place in Africa from 1990 to the present day - from the continental catastrophe in the Great Lakes region to the sprawling conflicts across the Sahel and the web of wars in the Horn of Africa. Taking a broad comparative approach to examine the political contexts in which these wars occurred, he explores the major patterns of organized violence, the key ingredients that provoked them and the major international responses undertaken to deliver lasting peace.

Part I, Contexts provides an overview of the most important attempts to measure the number, scale and location of Africa's armed conflicts and provides a conceptual and political sketch of the terrain of struggle upon which these wars were waged.

Part II, Ingredients analyses the role of five widely debated features of Africa's wars: the dynamics of neopatrimonial systems of governance; the construction and manipulation of ethnic identities; questions of sovereignty and self-determination; as well as the impact of natural resources and religion.

Part III, Responses, discusses four major international reactions to Africa's wars: attempts to build a new institutional architecture to help promote peace and security on the continent; this architecture's two main policy instruments, peacemaking initiatives and peace operations; and efforts to develop the continent.

War and Conflict in Africa will be essential reading for all students of international peace and security studies as well as Africa's international relations.