Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: ARMED CONFLICT AND ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES IN AFRICA: EVIDENCE FROM EAST AFRICA, SOUTHERN AFRICA, AND WEST AFRICA

EJAKAIT (J.S.E.) OPOLOT, PH.D.
PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
TEXAS SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY
HOUSTON, TEXAS 77004

ABSRACT

Long overdue for criminological analysis in Africa is the nexus between armed conflict and environmental crimes as non-conventional crimes. A starting point to do this analysis involves a critical review of the literature that has been generated in such disciplines as agronomy, political science, economics, history, anthropology, and international relations. It is against this background that this paper has been written with a focus on the nexus between armed conflict and environmental crimes in East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa, utilizing the existing evidence in the literature. The goal is to further develop production of African criminological knowledge.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Slide-lined by international relations for decades, understandings of Africa have been ghettoised in set and routine of explanations a particular social phenomenon. And yet, Africa has much to tell us about the unfolding processes of contemporary international relations. The seeming determination of states to survive notwithstanding their imminent collapse, huge gaps between wealth and poverty, and elites that are determined prey on both populations and the processes of states. Using critical theory, mainly, this paper will suggest that rather than Africa being the proverbial 'lost continent', political events in on the continent point the way to understandings of hegemony, power ideology and practice in other corners � distant and non-so-distant � of the world.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Despite ?the end of history?, state-building in Africa is far from completion. Many African states continue to struggle with internal cohesion and instability, poverty, ethnic marginalisation and resistence, in short a grim decay of governance. International organizations, Bretton Wood institutions in particular, have responded to ?state failure? in Africa by accelerating funding for institutional development, commonly known as ?capacity-building.? Using the Horn of Africa as its central focus, this paper argues that such institutional development programs couldnot reverse the truncated existence of the African state because they neglect the role of informal indigenous institutions. After revisiting the current approaches to institutional development promoted by international financial institutions, I argue that sustainable reconstruction of state institutions in Africa requires greater and enhanced role of indigenous institutions. The disconnect within conventional capacity building measures between formal and informal institutions needs to be challenged and replaced with a more holistic approach where indigenous institutions and regimes are recognized and cultivated. It is concluded that reforming the dominant policy approaches to ?capacity-building? cannot materialize without greater regional cooperation among African states.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Communal conflicts can take many forms,but one particular form—separatist violence—is all but absent from sub-Saharan Africa. Only one such movement—in Eritrea—succeeded in gaining sovereignty in sub-Saharan Africa, and only a handful of movements persisted for more than a brief time. This stands in contrast to Asia and the Middle East, which are home to many more separatist movements.Sustained separatist activity—over many years or decades—is first a function of feudal politics.States were able to successfully destroy feudal structures by commercializing agriculture, along the way inducing urbanization.I hypothesize that first, early separatist activity in Africa, as in other regions, depended on feudal elites mobilizing peasants; the general lack of “peasantization” of rural Africa (Hyden 1983) explains the lack of movements in the region, and second, that when the urban migration of regional minority populations was into minority-dominant cities, these movements are able to survive. This paper seeks a deeper understanding of the only successful movement in Africa,Eritrea, and comparing it to unsuccessful movements in Uganda and the DRC.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Since the end of the Cold War, Sub Saharan Africa has been the most conflicting area of the world , especially West Africa which is a privileged theatre of various crises and wars: Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, the region of Casamance in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire etc.

The first war which broke out in this sub region is the Liberian civil war, in 1989. Since this period, the West Africa has experienced a situation of instability which gave birth to various armed conflicts - Sierra Leone, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire - , what Michel GALY calls a “system of war” . How do these armed conflicts happen? Are there common variables between them? And then, can we talk about a new form of conflictuality in Sub Saharan Africa, especially in West Africa?

The aim of this paper is to analyze the armed conflicts in West Africa since 1989. It will identify the common variables between these wars: the question of ethnicity and religious cleavage, the phenomenon of “warlord”, the problem of child soldiers and the crucial question of economy of war. It will also propose track of solutions to prevent and solve armed conflicts in this sub region, in order to build an optimum situation for a sustainable development.

For this research, we will adopt a qualitative and a quantitative method by calling up various theories of security - especially neo realist, ethno realist but also liberal and constructivist theories - to analyse our subject.