Submit your papersSubmit Now
For Enquiries: [email protected]
IIARD LogoIIARD

Environmental Security, Conflict and Warfare in Twenty-First Century Africa

Damilola OLAJIDE, PhD, Bimbo OGUNBANJO, PhD, Celestine Agoziem, PhD, James Oluwatoyin ARUYA

Abstract

Africa is a continent that is changing quickly. Many people still consider it to be an odd area that is encrusted with tales and legends, though. This paper aims to educate the reader about Africa, with an emphasis on the security challenges facing the continent in the twenty-first century. Since there are 54 countries in Africa, making broad generalisations is challenging and potentially harmful. Africa includes South Africa, a certified member of the BRICS, as well as fragile and developing governments. However, all 54 nations are members of the African Union (AU). The majority are the offspring of the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference, and nearly all were colonised by European countries. In actuality, the political landscape of Africa is nearly identical to that of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when the majority of its nations gained their independence. The nations on the continent have faced numerous similar difficulties since the conclusion of the Cold War. The start of the twenty-first century was not good. According to the 2005 Peace and Conflict ledger, 31 of 161 countries—17 of which were in Africa—were at risk of a major conflict. Africa is home to more U.N. peacekeeping forces than any other continent. Seven of the world's fourteen main conflicts around the start of the century occurred in Africa. Since 1960, at least 32 African nations have seen at least one instance of non-separatist civil war. The majority of the world's conflicts take place there. This paper investigates the different connections between African security and insecurity challenges and the environment. The conceptual change around security and human security will be quickly summarised, followed by a discussion of the looming environmental problems that some people believe Africa is experiencing. The focus of this paper then shifts to the various ways that observers have asserted and denied links between conflict and the African environment. It goes on

Keywords

AfricaEnvironmentSecurityConflictWarPatronage Politics

References

Andrew, C. and V. Mitrokhin (2023). The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World, New York: Basic Books. Baaz, E. and K. Stern, (2020). “A Shift from Human to Regime Security?” Security Review, 42: 37–45. Baldwin, D. (2017) “The Concept of Security” Review of International Studies, 23, 1: 5–26. Barnett, J. (2021). The Meaning of Environmental Security, London: Zed Books. Bates, R. (2018). When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press. Bayart, J., S. Ellis & B. Hibou (2020). The Criminalization of the State in Africa, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Bazenguissa-Ganga, R. (2019). “The Spread of Political Violence in Congo-Brazzaville” African Affairs. 98, 390: 37–54. Bøås, M. (2022). “Funérailles pour un ami: Des luttes de citoyenneté dans la guerre civile Libérienne” Politique Africaine, no. 112: 36–51. Boone, C. (2021). “Publically Allocated Land Rights and the Geography of Electoral Violence: The Case of Kenya in the 1990s” Comparative Political Studies, 44, 10: 1311–1342. Booth, K. (2011). Theory of World Security, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Buzan, B. (2019). “Regional Security Complex Theory in the Post-Cold War World” in F. Söderbaum and T. M. Shaw (eds.) Theories of New Regionalism: A Palgrave Reader, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan: 140–159. Buzan, B. (1983). People, States and Fear: The National Security Problem in International Relations, Chapel Hill: North Carolina University Press. Chibundu, J. and J. Chabal (2022). “The African Standby Force: An Update on Progress” Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies. Chizea, P. (2023). Greed and Grievance in Civil War, Washington, DC: World Bank. Christie, I. T. and D. E. Crompton (2022). Tourism in Africa: World Bank Findings (Environmental, Rural and Social Development) #187. July. Clark, S. and S. Hoque (eds.) (2022). What Lies Ahead? Debating the Prospects for a Post- American World, London: Routledge. Collier, P. (2020a) “Rebellion as a Quasi-Criminal Activity” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 44, 6: 839–853. Collier, P. (2020b) Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and Their Implications for Policy, Washington, DC: World Bank. Conca, K. and G. Dabelko (2020). Green Planet Blues: Environmental Politics from Stockholm to Johannesburg, 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: West Press. Cox, R. W. (1981) “Social Forces, States and World Order: Beyond International Relations Theory” Millennium, 10, 2: 126–155. Dalby, S. (2019). Security and Environmental Change, Cambridge: Polity Press. Dalby, S. (2022). Environmental Security, Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press. Dalby, S. (2023). “Ecological Metaphors of Security: World Politics in the Biosphere” Alternatives: Social Transformation and Humane Governance, 23, 3: 291–319. Deininger, K. (2023). Land Policies for Growth and Poverty Reduction, Washington, DC and Oxford: World Bank/Oxford University Press. Deudney, D. (2019). “The Case Against Linking Environmental Degradation and National Security” Millennium, 19, 3: 461–476. Deudney, D. and R. Matthews (eds.) (2021). Contested Grounds: Security and Conflict in the New Environmental Politics, Albany, NY: SUNY Press. De Waal, M. F. (2017). Conflict Management in Africa, Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution Press. Duffield, M. (2019). Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of Peoples, Cambridge: Polity. Dunniy, K. (2020). Imagining the Congo: The International Relations of Identity, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Dunniy, M. and T. M. Shawney (eds.) (2021) Africa’s Challenge to International Relations Theory, London: Palgrave. Economist (2018). “Rising Africa” (401), 8762, 3 December: 15. Elbadawi, I. and N. Sambanis (2022). “How Much War Will We See? Explaining the Prevalence of Civil War” Journal of Conflict Resolution. 46, 3: 307–334. Englebert, P. (2022). Africa: Unity, Sovereignty and Sorrow, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Englebert, P. and D. Tull (2021). “Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa: Flawed Ideas about Failed States” International Security. 32, 4: 106–139. Fairhead, J. and M. Leach (2021). Misreading the African Landscape: Society and Ecology in a Forest-Savanna Mosaic, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gebrewold, B. (2022). “The Cynicism of African Solutions for African Problems” African Security, 3: 2: 80–103. Geschiere, P. (2024). “Ecology, Belonging and Xenophobia: the 199F Forest Law in Cameroon and the Issue of Community” in H. Englund and F. B. Nyamnjoh (eds.) Rights and the Politics of Recognition in Africa, London: Zed Books: 237–259. Geschiere, P. and F. Nyamnjoh (2020). “Capitalism and Autochthony: The Seesaw of Mobility and Belonging” Public Culture, 12, 2: 423–452. Glant, J. A., S. J. MacLean and T. M. Shawney (2021). Resource Politics in Sub-Sahara Africa. Hamburg: Institute for International Affairs: 124–137. Gleditsch, N. P. (2020). “Armed Conflict and the Environment: A Critique of the Literature” Journal of Peace Research, 35, 3: 381–400. Hagberg, S. (2021). Ethnic Identification in Voluntary Associations: the Politics of Development and Culture in Burkina Faso. London: Veed Books. Hardt, M. and A. Negri (2021). Empire, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Henderson, P. and V. Singer (eds.) (2022). Theories of International Regimes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Henze, J. (2022). The Nature of War in Africa, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Herbst, J. (2020). States and Power in Africa, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Herbst, J. and G. Mills, (2023). “Africa’s Big Dysfunctional States: An Introductory Overview” in C. Clapham, J. Herbst and G. Mills (eds.) Big African States. Johannesburg: Wits University Press: 1–16 Homer-Dixon, T. (2019). “On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict” International Security, 16, 2: 76–116. Homer-Dixon, T. (2020). Environment, Scarcity, and Violence, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Homer-Dixon, T. (2021). “Environmental Scarcities and Violent Conflict” International Security, 19, 1: 5–40. Homer-Dixon, T. and J. Blitt (2022). Ecoviolence, New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Huggins, C. and J. Clover (2024). From the Ground Up: Land Rights, Conflict and Peace in Sub- Saharan Africa, Pretoria: Institute for Security Studies. Hulme, M. (2020). “African Climate Change: 1900–2100” Climate Research 17, 2: 145–168. Human Rights Watch (ed.) (2019). Evil Days: Thirty Years of Famine in Ethiopia. New York: Human Rights Watch. Huysmans, J. (2020). “The Securitization of Migration” Journal of Common Market Studies, 38, 5: 751–777. Igoe, J. (2024). Conservation and Globalization: A Study of National Parks and Indigenous Communities from East Africa to South Dakota, Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Johansen, R. (2021). “Guinea-Bissau: A New Hub for Cocaine Trafficking” Perspectives, Issue 5, May. Vienna: United Nations Office for Drug Control: 4–7. Juma, C. and J. B. Ojwang (2019). In Land We Trust: Environment, Private Property and Constitutional Change, London: Zeedd Books. Kahl, C. (2023). States, Scarcity and Civil Strife in the Developing World, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press Kaldor, M. (2019). Human Security: Reflections on Globalization and Intervention, Cambridge: Polity Press. Kaldor, M. (2022). New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press Kalyvas, S. (2022). “Civil Wars” in C. Boix and S. Stokese (eds.) Comparative Politics, New York: Oxford University Press. Kalyvas, S. and L. Balcells (2021). “International System and Technologies of Rebellion: How the End of the Cold War Shaped Internal Conflict” American Political Science Review, 124, 3: 415–429. Kaplan, R. (2004). “T

More Articles from INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

Building National Analytics Capacity: Advances and Future Pathways

Author: Uchechi Mary-Linda Unamma, Ifeanyichukwu Jeffrey Okwesa, Uzoamaka Iwuanyanwu

Root-Cause and Thematic Analysis for Major Incident Management: A Review

Author: Ifeanyichukwu Jeffrey Okwesa, Uchechi Mary-Linda Unamma, Uzoamaka Iwuanyanwu

Data-Quality and Single-Source-Of-Truth Frameworks for Inter- Agency Reporting: A Review

Author: Uchechi Mary-Linda Unamma, Ifeanyichukwu Jeffrey Okwesa, Uzoamaka Iwuanyanwu

Human-In-The-Loop Decision Systems: Advances and Future Directions

Author: Funmilayo Ashore-Onisemo, Uchechi Mary-Linda Unamma, Ifeanyichukwu Jeffrey, Okwesa,

Roles of Oil Subsidy Removal on Transportation Cost and Water Factory in Cross River South, Nigeria

Author: Onwuzurike Peter Tobechi, Owoh Akwa Owoh, Unoh Grace Inyang, Umaru Musa