Political Studies and Governance

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Browsing Political Studies and Governance by Subject "Africa"

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    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). ___________________________________________________________________
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    Continuity and change in China's foreign policy towards Africa: the cases of the two Sudans, the DRC and Nigeria
    (University of the Free State, 2018-12) Letube, Katleho; Neethling, T.; Coetzee, E.
    The relationship between China and the African continent dates back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) but has grown rapidly and intensely from the early 1990s. This study provides significant insight to the relationship between China and the two Sudans, the DRC and Nigeria. Specifically, this study explores aspects of continuity and change in China’s foreign policy towards African states using these countries as case studies. The dynamics of China’s changing foreign policy are based on the problem statement that there is evident change in China’s foreign policy, despite China’s refusal to admit this. This study uses primary and secondary sources for deductive reasoning on foreign policy approaches, and the case study approach to establish the consistency of China’s foreign policy in a constantly changing world. Finally, the study concludes that despite notable changes in China’s foreign policy towards Africa, specifically in the two Sudans, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Nigeria, continuity largely prevails. At the same time, it should be noted that the findings emanate from only three case studies, China’s foreign policy behaviour in other cases could differ to some extent from the discoveries on the African context in this study.
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    Radicalisation to terrorism in Kenya and Uganda: a political socialisation perspective
    (Terrorism Research Initiative and the Center for Terrorism and Security Studies, 2015) Botha, Anneli
    Africa is increasingly being classified as the new battleground against terrorism. Yet, despite this renewed interest, countries on the continent have been experiencing manifestations of this threat already for several decades. Similar to most countries in the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe, countries on the African continent focus on addressing the symptoms and not the cause of terrorism. In addressing the manifestations of terrorism, countries directly affected by acts of terrorism predominantly adopted a security-centric approach in an attempt to bring an end to the violence. Although this might be effective in the short term, in the majority of cases, a security-centric approach has proven to be ineffective and often even counterproductive. Realising this, several scholars—and, since 2006, also the United Nations in its Global Counterterrorism Strategy—have called for addressing the underlying reasons, or conditions conducive to terrorism. Despite this positive shift in focus, governments on the African continent continue to refer to outdated lessons learned from other countries, mostly on other continents, when formulating their own counter-terrorism (CT) strategy. Learning from the experiences of others is necessary, yet foreign CT lessons often tend to be broad and general and, as a result, ineffective. Policy makers and practitioners tend to fall into the trap of framing counter strategies on what are assumed to be the underlying driving factors instead of actually conducting empirical research into the ‘real reasons’. It is from this premise that interviews were conducted with 285 individuals and family members associated with al-Shabaab and the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) in Kenya and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda in an attempt to find empirical evidence to support or discard what are perceived to be the root causes of recruitment into these four militant organisations. The resulting doctoral dissertation has as its most important lesson: countering and preventing terrorism should start with looking at the ‘who’ in addition to asking ‘why’. This article is a summary of the main research findings capturing the personal backgrounds of respondents representing the four organisations. Specific reference will be made to early childhood, the school and friends as socialisation agents in establishing ethnic and religious identity. The analysis concludes by describing the influence of these factors on radicalisation associated with external—most notably, economic, educational and political—circumstances in identifying the most critical factor driving radicalisation.