Security in Africa: The establishment of Political, Economic and Social Stability

Blinded by the devastating wars that have shattered the African continent in the past half-century, the international community and especially the governments of Western States, have failed to address what is essential, in order to focus on what was urgent. There certainly exists the need to provide humanitarian aid to countries emerging from armed conflicts. Though, the emphasis must also be given to long term peace-building operations, focusing not only on the crisis situation, but on what have caused the conflict in the first place. The idea is to transfer to the peace-building process the responsibility to (re)design a security structure for the State in question and introduce mechanisms that will help to foment a security network for the entire continent.
One cannot discuss the creation of a security system in Africa without first making sure that political, economic and social reforms are underway. Countries cannot act cooperatively in an unstable environment. A Standby Force cannot be made out of malfunctioning troops. A security force cannot be subordinated to a weak regional organization.
It is expected that now, after the creation of a renewed African Unity (AU), Africans can set aside the old objectives withhold by the Organization of African Unity's Charter -- highly connect with the establishment of sovereign States and the struggle against colonial powers -- and start acting to address present needs, such as the cooperation among African States, especially in terms of regional security. African Unity needs to pay attention to the fact that the majority of wars in the continent -- and mostly in the Sub-Saharan Africa -- are intrastate conflicts that spill over into neighboring regions. The analysis of the conflict problematic must be made by investigating the States' structures and limitations. This will be much more efficient to the study of security issues in the continent. It is necessary to avoid the risks and possibilities of social clashes within the States' borders. And the best way to do that is by building solid states, so as to prevent the emergence of new conflicts. The work starts as soon as post-conflicts' operations begin.

The three main structural sources of instability in Africa are: ethnic differences often increased by politicized internal struggles; lack of political maturity, resulting in a great number of failed states throughout the continent; and the concentration of natural resources in small regions, responsible for many of Africa’s secessionist wars. Addressing these problems is the best way to form a stable security system for the region. It might take decades for Africa to overpass these structural flaws. Though, the formulation of stable States, thriving economies, and egalitarian civil societies can lessen the effect of those historical and natural legacies.
Right now Africa is wrapped in the vicious circle in which internal instability leads to conflict, which causes State's failure, and consequent economic crashes, ultimately resulting in more instability. Hopefully, by working along with powerful States, international organizations, NGOs, the World Bank, IMF, and also by making a local effort, Africans can leave this terrible vicious circle aside and move into a beneficial virtuous circle where solid States guaranteeing economic wealth, can transform the structure of civil society and increase the country's stability.
Building stronger States, structured by solid political, economic and social institutions, and organized around representative governments, should be a priority in the peace building process. It is so because solid States are more able to offer social cohesion to its society, by bringing all the different groups to work together for the common good. They can also introduce mechanisms, such as the universal right to vote, to allow all the different ethnicities to be represented.
Investing in education is crucial in this process. It will take at least about 20 years of massive investments so they can narrow the gap between them and the developed world. It must be done not only to increase the levels of human development, but also to satisfy a very practical need: educate bureaucrats that will be essential in the process of constructing an efficient State. African armed forces are part of this ongoing process, because they need to be constituted by skilled personnel.
After the political reform is finished, it is time to start introducing important macro-economic reforms to improve the nation’s economy. Africa has had and astonishing rate of population growth. At the same time, though, its Gross National Product decreased, and was not able to keep up with the increasing population. In addition, its rate of economic growth decreased significantly since the 1970s. Those circumstances generated economic stagnation, which then led to great dissatisfaction. To reverse this trend for economic recession the States have to, initially, establish a free market economy, in which governmental interventions are rare and not molded by personal interests. It is also fundamental to diminishing the economic dependency, a generalized phenomenon that restrain African countries from growing, and make them more and more volatile to economic downturns in the international market. States should foment technical progress, as well as increase commerce with other States within the continent. The African economy has to adapt its production system, by changing the characteristics of regional producers, to the needs of the African consumers' markets.
Along with the economic growth, comes the need for social justice. The economic output has to be more evenly divided among the various segments of the civil society. Africa has the most unfair income distribution in the world. Small ruling groups retain more land, more property and more resources than the rest of the population. Africa also needs to achieve its economic interdependence. At the present, the commerce within African States is not of great importance for any African country. They prefer to trade with developed countries, and adequate their production to the needs of foreign markets. Whereas, by cooperating with other African States, they would contribute enormously to the creation of a stable situation in the region, since interdependent economies will think twice before going to war with one another. As economic cooperation increases, there will naturally initiate a process for the formation of institutions that will regulate and promote economic transactions as well as the transfer of technology and skills. There already exists organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); nevertheless, the volume of transactions amid the member states is still too low to be considered significant.
Internal instability often comes as a result of social struggles of ethnic, cultural, sociopolitical or religious roots. And unjust income distribution only worsens what is already critical. Growing economies and stable States can create the ideal environment for the establishment of social stability, because the multiple social groups will fell represented in the government. As a result, the likelihood that ethnical, cultural, and religious clashes happen will lessen. The power of the elite will also diminish. The new diverse government will act more for the promotion of the general welfare, than to fulfill the interests of a small class. The hundreds and hundreds of dollars in humanitarian aid that are often wasted in the hands a few leaders, can be then used by the actual improvement of the citizens’ living conditions. The rule of law will be established. This will prevent arbitrary governance and illegitimate – sometimes revolutionary – groups to come into power. The armed forces will work to protect civilians, rather than being an instrument of power and oppression by the ruling class. The conflict in the region of Darfur, Sudan, can be seen as an example of this problematic. The Sudanese armed forces are being responsible for massive genocide for considering that the region's civil population supports the rebels, when their role should be to protect the civilians against the harmful consequences of this terrible war.
States which have solid institutions, growing economies and social stability will be more capable of assuming its internal functions as well as its international obligations. Dysfunctional States tend to have enormous difficulties in forming and training armed forces that are truly committed to fight for their nation. What often happens in Africa is that the troops, bad equipped and bad remunerated, will not be willing to give their lives in the name of a cause established by a government that does not represent them, and do not have the same aspirations as they do. Well-founded States, on the other hand, are more capable of creating systems of military operations for national defense. They might as well perform international initiatives. Their troops are submissive to the State and act according to national interests, mainly to provide defense against external threats and to avoid that conflicts in neighboring countries cross their borders. In these States, the armed forces can work in peacekeeping operations as a benign interventor, promoting the peaceful settlement of disputes. The troops will also be more suitable to engage in initiatives such as the ACRI (African crisis Response Initiative) created by the United States to train African troops to act in peacekeeping operations.
Some Western countries are less willing to provide or extend this kind of aid, because they fear it might be used for purposes other than the promotion of peace and stability, especially if the equipments provided and the skills learned are used by the wrong groups.
International help is decisive to rebuild African countries and, therefore, guarantee international security. Many African governments support terrorist activities or are too weak to prevent terrorist cells to reside in the country. Not to mention the various networks of drug dealers which are encrusted in the region. The solution for some of African security issues would at some extent contribute to the solution of developed countries security weaknesses. It is not to say that the political and social reforms will solve, alone, the terrorism question or the international drug trafficking. Though, it will certainly be really helpful to the prevention of illegal operations.
Africa needs to adequate its armed forces to the information era. The States must structure an efficient intelligence service that could share information with one another. But, it can only be made after African States have built reliable governments that would be able to work in conjunction with international intelligence organisms, such as the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).
The idea of establishing stable States in Africa may sound like a utopia, and African countries might believe that this model is something impossible to achieve. In reality it is a hard, if not impossible, task. But as hard as it seems, it is a step they will have to take sooner or later. Even if they never get to the point of having well-established States, strong political institutions, prosperous economies or harmonious civil societies, it is still worth the load of trying. By trying they will get somewhere along the road, a position where, perhaps, frequent wars are part of the past.
The concept "divide to conquer" has worked perfectly well for the European nations to dominate the African continent in the first part of the 20th century. Now it is time to leave this thought behind and begin to create continental integration. Africa needs integration to survive, and need not to remain on this minor position in world affairs.
South Africa should be taken by other African States as a role model. In only a decade, it has gone from a country crashed by the apartheid régime to a successful democracy. The country has now the most important economy in the continent and is, certainly, a regional power. It is so, not only because it owns important natural resources -- Nigeria, for example, is one of the world's greatest oil exporters, but is one of the less developed countries in Africa, being constantly strike by internal conflicts -- it is because South Africa has manage to build a new State committed to the promotion of social justice, racial equality and economic growth. It has the potential to work as a local hegemon, by assuming a stabilizing role, especially in the Southwestern region. Its participation in African security affairs is crucial to the progress of African Unity.
The widespread idea of "African Solutions for African Problems", however, cannot be proved to be the right solution. In order to solve its own security problems, Africa would need to engage in peace making and peace enforcement, promote arms control and disarmament, take collective decisions and solve interstate disputes. And it is clear that in the present no organization in the continent can engage in those activities. African Unity is a good candidate for the job, but it has proved, by past experiences, to be really ineffective, or at least less effective than external agents. The organization lacks not only capable personnel and sufficient resources, but also active support from African States, which are much more concerned with their own political or socioeconomic problems. States' full engagement is crucial to the survival of any international organization, and must be enforced rather than built on self-reliance. We do not see that kind of commitment in the African Unity. On the contrary, what we see is that countries are not fully engaged in the work of the organization.
After taking those weaknesses into consideration, we notice that the most suitable step would be to use African Unity as a complement to the United Nations' activities in the continent, and let the latter take charges. United Nations has much more experience in the international security field, has more capable personnel and counts with larger financial support. African Unity could, however, work as a mechanism to put some of the UN aspirations for the continent into practice. Then, as African States become more stable and solid, African Unity would gradually change its configuration. It will take, however, more than a generation to create, diffuse and absorb the norms, principles, and values necessary to construct a substantial security system in Africa. The work must begin now.
After the Cold War, it seems like the developed world has turned its back on Africa. The role of Africa as a relatively important player in the agenda of the two major powers has faded away. African wars are no longer part of the strategic calculations of the great powers. The only legacy that the end of the Cold War era has left to Africa was the responsibility to take care of its own security affairs. At the same time, the disarmament process, especially in the Soviet Union, made the costs of weapons sharply decrease and facilitated the access of those weapons by paramilitary groups. What happened then were the militarization of African countries and the increase of powerful dissident groups.
The world has not treatened Africa fairly. Major Powers have exploited the continent, taken some of its important natural resources away, leaving a legacy of unstable political, economic and social institutions. They also have used African lands as a stage for external political disputes, and now have left the continent aside. The international community, and all its important actors, has the responsibility to repair those damages. Africa needs external help to build strong political organisms, in order to complete its full insertion into the international society, in a way that its people can profit from this process, and not suffer from it. The construction of Africa's Security System is, undoubtedly, a major step in this direction, but it will take more than the creation of regional organisms to do that. A complete process of internal reforms must be introduced.
Development is intrinsically connected to peace. So as long as the continent does not find its way to peace, it will suffer from the evils of instability.

Opening Note

I created this blog with the intent to discuss the most recent, and perhaps some historical, issues of International Security, such as: war, conflict prevention, post-conflict, peace-enforcement, peacekeeping, weapons control, terrorism, intelligence, and defense. International Security involves not only countries, but also other relevant international actors, for instance: United Nations Security Council, NGO’s, the European Union, religious leaders, etc. It incorporates International Law, UNSC resolutions, different cultures, morals and values, several religious principles and beliefs, historical facts, and a number of other factors specifically related to the question in hand.

International Security is the subject in the International Affairs' field, which I am most fond of. I hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them. I will try to expose my thoughts as clearly as possible, always taking into consideration the different ways of seeing the same issue. My intention is, therefore, to leave the doors opened to diverse opinions. I want you all to feel welcome to express your ideas, so that we have a pleasant academic-level discussion.

J. Arken