The issue of the military : the UN's experience of demobilization, disarmament and reintegration in Southern Africa

African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented October, 1996.This article will analyse the United Nations' experience of demilitarization in Southern Africa with reference to the issues surrounding the transition from an emergency situation to a developmental context. The three UN peace support operations in Southern Africa, namely Namibia, Mozambique and Angola, will be examined to assess the international organisation's role in that process. In so doing, the article highlights a number of themes, including the importance of developing a regional approach to demilitarization; the imperative of cooperation both within the UN itself and with the international donor and NGO community as a whole; and the need to develop a greater understanding of the efficacy of "targeting" demilitarization programmes towards excombatants in light of the broader goals of demilitarization

Turkey and African Agency: The Role of Islam and Commercialism in Turkey's Africa Policy

The concept of ‘agency’ and its role in capturing the dynamics between Africa and external actors feature increasingly in the African IR scholarship. Over the past decade, Turkey has become an increasingly prominent actor in Africa, strengthening political, cultural and economic ties with African states and providing humanitarian aid and development assistance. In this paper, we examine Turkey's relationship with Africa from the point of view of African agency and ask ‘How much and what kind of agency can we identify by examining the way in which Turkey approaches African states?’ The conventional understanding of the concept of African agency defines it in materialist terms and emphasises its transactional nature; it does not adequately explain incidents of enhanced outcomes for Africans in their relationship with Turkey. We argue that an under-examined aspect and a vital source of African agency lies within the discourses of Turkish policy which provide an enabling source of policy space for negotiation for Africans. We demonstrate that the notion of Muslim kinship in Turkish discourses not only distinguishes Turkey from most of the other external powers engaging with the continent but also enables African interlocutors to negotiate enhanced outcomes

The infrastructures of global connectivity: 5G networks

This primer outlines what 5G telecommunication networks are, how they function, and what the relevant policy considerations are, given ongoing policy debates

South African foreign policy and China: converging visions, competing interests, contested identities

South Africa's burgeoning relationship with China exposes the increasing complexities of its post-apartheid international relations. On one hand bilateral relations have deepened since 1998, due to the increasing complementarities with South Africa's foreign policy priorities that emphasise developmental pragmatism and a Southward orientation within the broader African context. On the other hand this relationship emphasises the deeper schisms within South African society itself, where divergent and multi-layered perspectives on South Africa's post-apartheid identity and relationship with China, the country's largest trading partner, remains unresolved. This article maps out the nature of China–South Africa relations through a thematic approach. This allows for nuanced consideration of South Africa's contemporary foreign policy, one that remains compressed between a combination of external and domestic factors

The arctic and Africa in China’s foreign policy: how different are they and what does this tell us?

The article discusses China’s policies in and towards the Arctic and Africa within a comparative perspective. To what extent is China’s policy adaptable to different conditions? What does this adaptability tell us about China’s ascendant great-power role in the world in general? What is the message to the Arctic and Africa respectively? The article concludes that China’s regional strategies aptly reflect the overall grand strategy of a country that is slowly but surely aiming at taking on the role of leading global superpower. In doing so, Chinese foreign policy has demonstrated flexibility and adaptive tactics, through a careful tailoring of its so-called core interests and foreign policy principles, and even identity politics, to regional conditions. This implies that regions seeking autonomy in the context of great power activism and contestation should develop their own strategies not only for benefiting from Chinese investment but also in terms of managing dependency on China and in relation to China and great power competition

Critiques of the rational actor model and foreign policy decision making

Foreign policy decision making has been and remains at the core of foreign policy analysis and its enduring contribution to international relations. The adoption of rationalist approaches to foreign policy decision making, predicated on an actor-specific analysis, paved the way for scholarship that sought to unpack the sources of foreign policy through a graduated assessment of differing levels of analysis. The diversity of inputs into the foreign policy process and, as depicted through a rationalist decision-making lens, the centrality of a search for utility and the impulse toward compensation in “trade-offs” between predisposed preferences, plays a critical role in enriching our understanding of how that process operates. FPA scholars have devoted much of their work to pointing out the many flaws in rationalist depictions of the decision-making process, built on a set of unsustainable assumptions and with limited recognition of distortions underlined in studies drawn from literature on psychology, cognition, and the study of organizations. At the same time, proponents of rational choice have sought to recalibrate the rational approach to decision making to account for these critiques and, in so doing, build a more robust explanatory model of foreign policy

South Africa’s «Quiet Diplomacy» and the crisis in Zimbabwe

The Southern African Development Community (SADC), once perceived to be a potential bulwark of solidarity on regional security and emerging democratic politics, is divided as never before. Since the onset of regional intervention in the Congo (ex-Za1re) in 1998, the organisation of fourteen member states has experienced unprecedented dissent and internal friction that has paralysed its role as a regional peacemaker. With the voices of democracy, tolerance, and peace, including that of regional giant South Africa, increasingly silenced by autocratic leaders in Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia, and the DC Congo, SADC has become ineffective in fostering security in Southern Africa. Most puzzling for international observers is in this context the behaviour of the continent's most celebrated democracy, South Africa, towards the crisis in Zimbabwe.A Southern African Development Community (SADC), outrora vista como um potencial baluarte de solidariedade para a protecção da segurança regional e de uma política democrática emergente, esta hoje mais dividida que nunca. Desde o início, em 1998, da intervenção regional no Congo (ex-Zaire), esta organização composta por catorze estados membros passa por dissensos e fricções internas sem precedente que a paralisaram na sua função de garantir a paz na região. Enquanto as vozes da democracia, tolerância e paz — mesmo as do gigante regional, da Africa do Sul — são cada vez mais silenciados pelos líderes autocráticos no Zimbabwe, em Angola, na Namíbia e na RD Congo, a SADC se tornou num instrumento ineficaz para promover a segurança na Africa Austral. Neste contexto, o comportamento mais desconcertante e o da democracia mais célebre do continente, a da África do Sul, face a crise no Zimbabwe.La Southern African Development Community (SADC), autrefois vue comme un mécanisme de défense solidaire de la sécurité régionale et d'une politique démocratique émergente, est aujourd'hui plus divisée que jamais. Dès le début, en 1998, de l'intervention régionale au Congo (ex-Zaïre), cette organisation composée de quatorze états membres passe par des dissensions et frictions internes sans précédents qui la paralysent dans sa fonction de garantir la paix dans la région. Or que les voix de la démocratie, de la tolérance et de la paix — même celle du géant régional, l'Afrique du Sud — sont de plus en plus réduits au silence par les leaders autoritaires du Zimbabwe, de l'Angola, da la Namibie et de la RD Congo, la SADC est devenu un instrument inefficace pour promouvoir a sécurité en Afrique Australe. Dans ce contexte, le comportement le plus déconcertant est celui de la démocratie la plus célèbre du continent, celle de l'Afrique du Sud, par rapport à la crise au Zimbabwe