Violent Development: toward an economic history of African warfare and military organisation

The aim of this paper is deceptively simple: What has war achieved in Africa in the last two hundred years? What have the wagers of war aimed to achieve, even if they did not succeed? Why and in what ways has violence failed? This paper represents a preliminary attempt to explore what can broadly be termed the 'economic aspects' of both warfare and military organisation in Africa's modern history — to identify the economic drivers of conflict, as well as the material constraints upon it; to explore the ways in which warfare can be said to have facilitated 'development', broadly defined, as well as bringing about economic catastrophe, or at least severely inhibiting economic growth; and to highlight the degree to which participation in violence, notably as armed combatant, represented material aspiration and offered opportunities for both economic gain and social mobility. At root, it is argued here that the developmental aspects of warfare — viewed over the long term, and understood within local parameters — need to be appreciated alongside its unquestionably highly destructive elements. The paper uses as its timeframe the period since c.1800, a date which — give or take a decade or two on either side, variable from place to place — denotes the beginning of Africa's 'modern era'. In many ways the centrepiece of the thesis presented here is that across much of the continent the 'long' nineteenth century — stretching between the 1780s and the 1920s — witnessed a revolution in military affairs, ongoing aspects of which have had a profound influence on postcolonial Africa. The paper aims to examine the economic dimensions of that revolution and its aftermath, and to place Africa's recent economic and military history in a longer-term context. </p

Eritrea: the siege state

To prevent Eritrea from becoming the Horn of Africa’s next failed state, the international community must engage more with the country

A Multi-faceted Provenance Solution for Science on the Web

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How to measure mood in nutrition research

© 2014 The Authors. Mood is widely assessed in nutrition research, usually with rating scales. A core assumption is that positive mood reinforces ingestion, so it is important to measure mood well. Four relevant theoretical issues are reviewed: (i) the distinction between protracted and transient mood; (ii) the distinction between mood and emotion; (iii) the phenomenology of mood as an unstable tint to consciousness rather than a distinct state of consciousness; (iv) moods can be caused by social and cognitive processes as well as physiological ones. Consequently, mood is difficult to measure and mood rating is easily influenced by non-nutritive aspects of feeding, the psychological, social and physical environment where feeding occurs, and the nature of the rating system employed. Some of the difficulties are illustrated by reviewing experiments looking at the impact of food on mood. The mood-rating systems in common use in nutrition research are then reviewed, the requirements of a better mood-rating system are described, and guidelines are provided for a considered choice of mood-rating system including that assessment should: have two main dimensions; be brief; balance simplicity and comprehensiveness; be easy to use repeatedly. Also mood should be assessed only under conditions where cognitive biases have been considered and controlled

The powers of the Lords in Brexit are substantial but unlikely to be used to full effect

The Prime Minister suffered a big defeat in the House of Lords yesterday as peers endorsed requiring ministers to consider customs union membership post-Brexit. While this shows that the powers of the House of Lords in the Brexit process are substantial, they are unlikely to be used to full effect, explains Richard Reid (University of Oxford)