Common security and civil society in Africa

This book is the outcome of a conference on Common Security and Civil Society in Africa, held in 1997, and organised jointly by the Nordic Africa Institute and the Common Security Forum, based at the Centre for History and Economics, King's College and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. The idea that security is to be achieved by cooperation more than by confrontation, and that it is an economic and social as well as a military condition, has been a commonplace of international politics for some 20 years. The geometry of common or extended security is complex. But it usually involves an extension of the domain of security, of the sources of security, and of the characteristics of security. Among these diverse kinds of security, it is political security which has come into particular prominence at the end of the 1990s, most strikingly in Africa. Political security, in the sense of legal and political institutions such that individuals feel secure both in their individual rights and in the development of political culture, has come to be seen as the foundation of all other kinds of security. The papers presented in this volume seek to go 'beyond the war of images', to imagine a different and more secure future, and they are concerned with five major themes: economic and social change; the prevention of violent conflict; the causes of conflict; political security; the international politics of development partnership.CONTENTS -- BEYOND THE WAR OF IMAGES: TOWARDS COMMON SECURITY AND NEW PARTNERSHIP WITH AFRICA/Samantha Gibson -- SHIFTING COMMITMENTS AND NATIONAL COHESION IN AFRICAN COUNTRIES/Thandika Mkandawire -- POVERTY, EQUALITY AND SECURITY IN SOUTH AFRICA/Stephan Klasen and Fani Zulu -- HEALTH AND SECURITY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA/William Pick -- MEETING THE GOALS OF THE 1990 WORLD SUMMIT ON CHILDREN: HEALTH AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA/Omar B. Ahmad -- CONFLICT PREVENTION AND EARLY-WARNING SYSTEMS/J. ‘Bayo Adekanye -- THE STRUCTURE OF CONFLICT/Mary Kaldor -- ARMS AND CONFLICTS IN AFRICA: MYTHS AND REALITIES OF PROLIFERATION AND DISARMAMENT/Siemon T. Wezeman -- PROMOTING THE RULE OF LAW IN POST-CONFLICT SOCIETIES/Rama Mani -- AID AND POLITICS IN MALAWI AND KENYA: POLITICAL CONDITIONALITY AND DONOR SUPPORT TO THE 'HUMAN RIGHTS, DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE' SECTOR/Samantha Gibson -- THE INTERACTION BETWEEN STATE AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: PROSPECTS FOR PEACE AND SECURITY/Patrick Molutsi -- COSMOPOLITAN PATRIOTS/Kwame Anthony Appia