Collective monograph "Between Promise and Peril: African Security in the 21st Century"

Between Promise and Peril: African Security in the 21st Century
Editors: Dr. Sergey Kostelyanets;
Prof. Hussein Solomon
Moscow: Institute for African Studies of the RAS, 2023. – 272 с.
ISBN 978-5-91298-293-4

This book discusses the multitude of security perils Africa is currently facing, as well as contexts – geopolitical, regional, and national – that give rise to these threats. The escalating tensions between great powers make the scramble for the continent’s resources, markets, and political allegiances increasingly more tense and undisguised, while African countries struggle to maintain neutrality and defend their national interests under mounting foreign pressure. The global competition also facilitates the “hybridization” of warfare in Africa, which implies a growing role of unconventional tactics and non-state actors in the course of conflicts. In the meantime, insurgent and terrorist groups continue to take advantage of porous borders and weak security coordination among African nations to expand their spheres of influence in the Sahara-Sahel zone and beyond. More importantly, radicals feed on public grievances pertaining to corruption, state repression, factionalism, maladmi-nistration and bureaucratic inefficiency, poverty, inequality, marginalization, and state fragility in general to strengthen their ranks with new recruits. Nonetheless, authors of the volume argue that the future holds the promise of peace for the continent as its countries gradually increase solidarity, deepen political, economic and cultural integration, develop security coordination, and adopt more Afrocentric approaches toward state- and nation-building.