Introduction to ACPR: African Conflict in Global Perspective

The waning days of the twentieth century brought increasing awareness of the globalized nature of large-scale armed conflicts in Africa. In both the academy and the popular media, the term globalization became nearly ubiquitous as scholars made heady pronouncements about transnationalism and the unraveling of nation-states and national borders (though reports of their imminent irrelevance were greatly exaggerated). In the short term at least, the end of the Cold War did not produce the hoped-for peace dividend. Although warfare in Angola petered out over a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, an interlinked series of wars erupted in the Mano River and the Great Lakes regions. Long-standing conflicts re-emerged in the Horn of Africa. Economic and political meltdowns associated with the land reform crisis wracked Zimbabwe. The 2007 elections in Kenya witnessed an eruption of violence, as did Nigeria at several moments in the past decade. And postapartheid South Africa, while collectively re-assessing the past through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission efforts, nonetheless failed to achieve the necessary structural changes that would enable justice and greater equality. In the western and central regions of the continent, the term "blood diamonds" drew attention to the associated international networks in the illicit trade in minerals and weapons. Diasporic communities scattered around the globe invest resources in their home countries, feeding both conflict and peace by turns. As power and other intangible resources have flowed through these various transnational networks, certain perspectives and types of expertise have been privileged over others. This complex reality not only shapes the study of African conflict and peacebuilding, but also underscores the multifaceted and multidisciplinary nature of peace and conflict in Africa.

Conflict and peacebuilding in Africa are complicated phenomena that cannot be fully understood without interrogating the historical, structural, and cultural factors within African countries and the global economic and political system in which they are enmeshed. However, African conflict and peacebuilding efforts cannot be reduced to either historical or structural determinism. Africans have been agents who navigate local and global structures to advance their interests in both conditions of conflict and peace. Moreover, Africans have divergent experiences with conflict and peacebuilding; while the majority of people have been victims of wars and the political, economic, and social conditions that lead to war, many have also been victimizers either by engaging in acts of violence or contributing to the conditions that lead to violence. Yet others have moved from being victims or powerless observers to empowered citizens who resist victimization and the conditions that lead to violence. Their forms of resistance range from occasional acts to end conflict and build peace at the individual and community levels, to bold social mobilizations for fundamental political, economic, and social change in African countries and the global system. The spirit of resilience, creativity, and innovation that marks so many African efforts to move beyond structural constraints and violence toward popular empowerment and peace embodies the vision of African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review (ACPR).

A variety of scholars, including anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists, have studied the structural and powerladen dimensions of peace and conflict in Africa. Studies of the post-Cold War civil wars in the continent, most notably in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Democratic Republic of Congo, raise critical scholarly and policy questions about governance, security, humanitarian intervention, and human rights. While some of the works focus on examining the nature of conflict and peacebuilding mechanisms, others examine the political, economic, and social factors that lead to conflict in African countries. Too often, issues of peace and conflict in Africa have been reduced to thematic studies of refugees, dictatorship, democratic transition, peacekeeping, and a variety of social problems that undermine peace or result from civil war. Despite the wide range of issues addressed in the academic and policy works on peace and conflict in Africa, there is still a need for a more holistic approach to the study of African conflict and peacebuilding. Such a holistic approach must not only study the nature and...