Doctoral Degrees (Political Studies and Governance)
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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Political Studies and Governance) by Advisor "Solomon, H."
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Item Open Access An analysis of regime capacity and a nascent environmental conflict in the Orange-Senqu, the Nile and the Niger River basins(University of the Free State, 2017) Mahlakeng, Mahlakeng Khosi; Solomon, H.𝑬𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 For much of the past century, the hydropolitical landscape of African transboundary river basins has been affected by water scarcity. The analysis of hydropolitics is referred to here as the politics of water, which symbolises the most complex relations and interactions between states that share river basins. According to Elhance (2000:202), such hydropolitics is a function of two variables: the rate of change in the hydrologic system and the institutional capacity to absorb that change. The United Nations (UN) identified the Orange-Senqu, the Nile and the Niger River basins, along with six other African river basins susceptible to potential water-induced conflict, as being at risk of tensions and/or conflict. The discourse and interest of this study in water as a potential source of conflict concentrates largely on the Orange-Senqu, the Nile and the Niger river basins. This study takes a comparative perspective of these transboundary river basins and outlines foreseeable transboundary river challenges for regional security, considering the impact of environmental scarcity. The selection of these basins is prompted by these regions being marked by serious environmental challenges that are detrimental to combustible hydropolitics over such shared water resources. Moreover, these cases are situated in three different regions and are aligned to different already functional regimes, with protocols and/or charters on shared watercourse. As such, they make for a helpful comparative case study analysis. These cases provide ideal and fascinating examples of the links between climate variability and change, water resources, human security, conflict, adaptation and regime capacity. The transboundary Orange-Senqu River Basin, located in the Southern African region is, after the Congo and the Zambezi river basins, the third largest river catchment in Africa. The basin stretches over four countries that includes all of Lesotho, a large portion of South Africa, southern Namibia and southwestern Botswana. The Orange-Senqu basin faces challenges of water scarcity due to soil erosion, wetland degradation, pollution, irrigation, mining, industries, population growth, power generation and domestic consumption. The unequal distribution of freshwater resources is also a fundamental factor posing a threat to the economic and social development of the Southern African region. The Nile River Basin (NRB), located in the region of North East Africa is an international river shared by eleven riparian countries. These are Burundi, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan and South Sudan. This makes it the world’s longest river at about 6,700km or 4,100 miles. The NRB faces considerable challenges including rapid population growth, water scarcity as the NRB countries are known for their arid and semi-arid conditions, poverty, environmental degradation and uneven distribution of the Nile waters. The NRB is centrally challenged by disputes over the unequal use of water between upstream and downstream riparian countries. The Niger River, located in West Africa, is the third longest river in Africa after the Nile and Congo, flowing for 4,200 km and extending into 10 countries (Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Benin, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria). The Niger River Basin also faces challenges of population growth (with a total population of approximately 100 million and a growth rate of around 3%), agricultural run-off, oil production (the source of a host of environmental issues) and climate change, among other challenges. Regarding the institutions and institutional capacity required to promote cooperation among member countries and ensure the integrated development of resources, the study focuses on the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM), the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), and the Niger Basin Authority (NBA). ___________________________________________________________________Item Open Access Beyond the state-centric lens of the fragile state discourse: the case for hybrid political orders in Somaliland(University of the Free State, 2021-11) Schoeman, Albert; Solomon, H.Since the collapse of communism in the late 1980s, a "third wave of democratisation" has swept across the globe, encouraging many developing countries (particularly in Africa) to embrace liberal democratic, free market principles. However, several states appeared unable to sustain democratic governments and economic growth during the 1990s. This resulted in the rise and prominence of the fragile state discourse, which characterised these states as soft, weak, failed, or collapsing in accordance with the degree to which they failed to meet the Weberian criteria for statehood. This Western, state-centric approach has further been reflected in the efforts of governments, non-governmental organisations, and donor agencies to promote peace and state-building as a remedy to state failure. The study argues that the state-centric approach exemplified by Weber's definition of the state and embraced by fragile state discourse and Western state-building efforts has failed to provide an objective, counter-hegemonic, and emancipatory perspective on states labelled as weak, failed, or collapsed. Rather than that, the study focusses on Hybrid Political Orders as a complementary perspective that takes a post-Western approach more suited to comprehending the realities of fragile states while also acknowledging the role of traditional authorities in the hybrid state-building process. Current international relations theory, with a particular emphasis on statehood, the fragile state perspective, and state-building, is accused of being exclusive and catering to a small minority at the expense of most of the world's population. Rather than exaggerating the politics of public bodies, political science and international relations theory should place a greater emphasis on people or politics at the grassroots level. The study attempted to provide a post-Western revisionist and alternative perspective on current state-building practises by emphasising the role of Hybrid Political orders in Somaliland.Item Open Access International politics in an era of democratic peace: the enduring quality of Waltzian structural realism(University of the Free State, 2017-01) Coetzee, Eben; Solomon, H.English: International politics continue to be marked (or, more properly) marred by debilitating continuities. Across time and space, and against the vogue of inside-out explanations of international politics (with democratic peace theory as the example par excellence), the study points toward the enduring quality of Waltzian structural realism in theorising and explaining international-political outcomes. The study, accordingly, shows the enduring usefulness of systems theories of international politics and, as against this, the inadequacy of reductionist theories in accounting for international-political outcomes. Waltzian concepts and expectations such as the tyranny of small decisions, balance-of-power theory, emulation and competition, and strange bedfellows are borne out by an examination of the past, present and (as far as possible) future of international politics. The study also shows the lack of empirical and theoretical vindication for democratic peace theory. In making a case for the poverty of democratic peace theory and, as against this, the enduring quality of Waltzian structural realism, the study examines international politics from the period ranging from Ancient Greece to the future of international politics, illustrating that we have much to learn from Waltz’s structural realist theory. Short of the system being transformed, and on account of the evidence presented in this study, Waltzian structural realism is set to remain the basic theory of international politics. In more ways than one, the future of international politics is set to look very much like the past.