Demilitarizing the Mind: African Agendas for Peace and Security

180 Pages·2022·9.642 MB·English

by  Alexander De Waal

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DEMILITARIZING
THE MIND
AFRICAN AGENDAS FOR
PEACE AND
SECURITY
Alex de Waal (editor)
Justice Africa
Africa World Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 1892 P.O. Box 48
Trenton, N) 08607 Asmara, ERITREA
Africa World Press, Inc.
P.O. Box 1892 P.O. Box 48
Trenton, Nj 08607 Asmara, ERITREA
Copyright © 2002 Justice Africa
First Printing 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be repro-
duced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise without the prior written permission of the pub-
lisher.
Book Design: Getahun Seyoum Alemayehu
Cover Design: Debbie Hird
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data
Demilitanzing the mind : African agendas for peace and security/
edited by Alex De Waal.
p. cm.
Includes Bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-86543-987-7 — ISBN 0-86543-988-5 (pbk.)
1. Militarism—Africa—History—20th century. 2. Africa—Politics and
government—1960. I. De Waal, Alexander.
DT21.5 .D46 2003
303.6'6:096—dc21
20001006223
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Towards a Framework for Regional Peace and Security .......... 13
Constitutionalism and Conflict Prevention... 51
The Poutical Cultures Of Ailitaristy ecceee,o ee e 16
Social Mobilization [On PCACC cc. carecsrencarceocsesc tsencncnestesesnecetss g 93
Mercenaries and the Military-Commercial COMmplexXt sees 115
Post-Contlict DenviitariZatiOn eee. .c-eecsdeccsstese nonceneea-exatrvese s 139
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The chapters in this volume were initially prepared for the consultation
“Regional Peace and Security in Africa’ held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania,
in November 2000. The consultation was convened by Justice Africa, with
the assistance of InterAfrica Group, the Pan African Movement, the Cen-
tre for Democracy and Development and the Mwalimu Nyerere Founda-
tion. It was hosted by the Centre for the Study of Forced Migration at the
University of Dar es Salaam.
The consultation was made possible by the generous support
of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the Nether-
lands Government, and the UK Department for International Development.
In addition, funding for participants was provided by NOVIB, CordAid,
Norwegian Church Aid and the Commonwealth Foundation.
The papers for the consultation were based on a wide range of
contributions, written and verbal. They were kept anonymous because
this was the best means of obtaining pertinent and incisive analysis, es-
pecially of controversial issues. All Justice Afnca directors were engaged
in editing the papers, which were prepared in their final versions by Alex
de Waal. Chapter 6, on mercenaries, draws very extensively on the work
done by J. Kayode Fayemi and Abdel Fatau Musah, who prepared a pa-
per on this subject for the consultation. The chapters do not represent
the views of any individual, institution, or government, and should not be
taken as firm viewpoints or statements of doctrine or policy, but instead
as attempts to stimulate thought.
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This book is a product of Justice Africa’s programme, ‘regional peace and
security in Africa.’ It is akin to a conversation among African policymakers
and civil society about what peace and security order in Africa might look
like.
This programme brings together a small informal group of African
civil society and policymakers to discuss key issues, develop ideas and
frameworks, identify key areas of controversy and seek consensus on
strategies. The programme was initiated in 1999 and the first consulta-
tion was convened in Kigali, Rwanda, in October that year. The out-
come of that consultation is published as Who Fights? Who Cares? War
and Humanitarian Action in Africa (Africa World Press, 2000). The Dar
es Salaam consultation, which was held in November 2000 is the second
in what is envisaged as a regular series of such meetings. This volume is
the outcome of that meeting.
The Dar es Salaam consultation and this book are envisaged as an
initiative in ‘seminar diplomacy’, helping build common understandings
of issues among key constituencies across the continent. They are also
envisaged as an innovative research programme, developing thinking, de-
bate and publishing on key issues in an unconventional manner based on
unsigned contributions.
The chapters in this book are all unsigned. This requires some expla-
nation. The research agenda for the Dar es Salaam consultation arose from
the discussions held in Kigali in 1999. The theme of that consultation was
‘Humanitarianism and Conflict: New Agendas for Africa.” Among the top-
ics most vigorously discussed in Kigali were how to establish a frame-
work and institutions to promote peace and security in Africa. As a re-
sult, it was decided that the next consultation should focus on this issue.
Its components, which form the main chapters of this book, included:
A framework for regional peace and security.
Constitutionalism and peace and security.
Stakeholders in peace: challenges and constraints.
Post-conflict demilitarization.
eSaNaB l ilPrievaste military interventions.
DEMILITARIZING THE MIND
An introduction has been added and Paper 3 has been divided into
two chapters, concerned respectively with militarism and social mobiliza-
tion for peace. Subsequently, we have added an additional, introductory
chapter, on the search for coherence in peace-making activities.
The methodology of the research process is unusual. Justice Africa
has pioneered a research and consultation methodology based on the
unsigned issue paper. In this methodology, Justice Africa solicits a range
of views on a given topic. These range from written contributions of up to
eight pages, to short notes on a single piece of paper, to verbal contribu-
tions. Our reference group for soliciting these inputs includes policymakers
and political leaders, focussing in particular on individuals who would
not otherwise be able to contribute their analyses to this kind of enter-
prise. All contributors are guaranteed anonymity, and in the resulting pa-
pers, we do our best to ensure that they cannot be identified. In fact, the
issue papers may be described as a written version of a ‘Chatham House
Rules’ discussion. The organizers and editors take collective responsibil-
ity for the contents.
Justice Africa produces an issue paper of 15-20 pages, which identi-
fies the main themes and issues of contention, identifying different view-
points and aspects to the argument, and evaluating them, but ultimately
leaving it for the reader to make up his or her mind as to the merits of the
different arguments presented. We pose questions rather than positing
answers. Particularly when complex or controversial issues are presented,
we find that this is an excellent method for obtaining high quality discus-
sion and debate. We find that this approach surpasses the more common
method of commissioning a consultant to produce a ‘state of the art’ re-
view, which tends to reproduce particular viewpoints or the conventional
wisdom prevailing. We also find that it surpasses the normal method of
conference papers presented by specialists, which suffer from the draw-
back that the ensuing discussion tends to focus on the identity of the
author, and the institution he or she represents, and aspects of that
person’s and that individual’s history. Once personal identification and
institutional identity are no longer an issue, discussants are free to focus
on the substantive issues. This also enables difficult or taboo issues to
be raised.
This methodology has been used for the chapters in this book. In the
consultation it proved effective in generating a high level of discussion
on the issues and ensuring that key issues were raised for the first time.
We hope that some of this spirit is reflected in this book. There is no final
declaration or closing statement. The consultation was part of an ongo-
ing process that may contribute to issues being raised, debated and in-
corporated into thinking. It is work in progress, not an argument to a con-
clusion.
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