| ID | 158013 |
| Title Proper | Taming intervention |
| Other Title Information | sovereignty, statehood and political order in Africa |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Oliveira, Ricardo Soares de ; Verhoeven, Harry |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Military intervention in weak states by their more powerful peers is one of the great constants in the history of international relations, and is closely related to the question of state survival. In an anarchical international system characterised by a scarcity of resources, how do feeble polities manage threats to their sovereignty? African states in particular have been subject to continual interventions by outside forces, whether those of multilateral organisations such as NATO and the EU, or of individual great powers. This trend has only increased in the last two decades, owing, inter alia, to the ‘war on terror’, deepening worries over a nexus between security and migration, and the seemingly growing fragmentation of authority in numerous African states. The continent is the subject of two-thirds of UN Security Council discussions on armed conflict and the theatre of more ongoing UN peacekeeping operations than the remaining world regions combined. Yet it is striking that African states have not only maintained independent statehood and resisted regime change, but in recent years have both clamoured for extra-regional intervention and become avid inter-regional interveners themselves. A continent that might once have been described as the world’s most sovereigntist has thus, intriguingly, become highly tolerant, and even encouraging, of military intervention. Why? |
| `In' analytical Note | Survival : the IISS Quarterly Vol. 60, No.2; Apr-May 2018: p.7-32 |
| Journal Source | Survival : the IISS Quarterly Vol: 60 No 2 |
| Key Words | Intervention ; Insurgency ; Africa ; Peace Keeping ; Civil Conflict |