The Security Arena in Africa: Local Order-Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland, and South Sudan

Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen: 29/09/2021

Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy Hamburg: 06/09/2021

Rebel governance assumes a symbiotic relationship between coercion and public goods provision. However, in the rebel-held town of Ndélé, Central African Republic, we find that governance happens in rebel-held territory, but rarely by rebels.

For his book The Security Arena in Africa, GIGA researcher Tim Glawion is to be awarded the Gero Erdmann Prize for Comparative Area Studies. The jury praised the ambitious work for its innovative research question and exceptional methodological achievement.

Dr. Tim Glawion’s doctoral thesis The Security Arena in Africa: Local Order-Making in the Central African Republic, Somaliland, and South Sudan has won the 2019 Arnold Bergstraesser Award. Cambridge University Press published the monograph in 2020.

By the end of May 2022, the mandate for the German military mission in Mali will expire. The decision on an extension should be made against the backdrop of two trends in Africa: the spread of jihadist violence and the growing influence of non-Western external powers.

Development policy plays a crucial role in addressing global as well as African challenges. The authors of this GIGA Focus Africa expect the future German Federal Government to ensure coherence in development policy and joint action by the foreign, economic and environment ministries.

Studying 12 cases across the Central African Republic, Haiti, Somaliland, and South Sudan, I investigate (1) where hybrid interactions take place, (2) how they happen and (3) what this means for people’s security.

13/12/2021

Examinations of substate politics are mostly limited to single-case studies or statistical analyses. Seldom are qualitative methods applied with a comparative aim in mind that can unveil patterns of political ordering on the local level. In this GIGA session we discuss how to gather comparable data across field sites and how to compare them analytically. The lecturer will provide examples from his comparative studies on local security arenas in the Central African Republic, Lebanon, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Haiti. Students are encouraged to share their own experiences and plans during class.

Radboud University Nijmegen Nijmegen: 29/09/2021

Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy Hamburg: 06/09/2021