Developments in African Governance since the Cold War: Beyond Cassandra and Pollyanna

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel McFerson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Economic Governance ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Worst Case ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Institutional Capacity Building ◽  
Better Than

Abstract:Twenty years ago, most African countries seemed permanently mired in malgovernance and repression. The end of the Cold War triggered two contrasting developments: governance improvement associated with the end of superpower competition, and deterioration caused by the resurgence of suppressed ethnic conflicts. Based on a variety of evidence, three subperiods can be identified: fragile governance progress from 1989 to 1995; backsliding associated largely with civil conflict between 1996 and 2002; and resumption of progress in recent years. These broad trends mask major intercountry differences—with Ghana the best-known case of improvement and Zimbabwe the worst case of reversal. Overall, African governance is now somewhat better than it was two decades ago. However, the progress is fragile, and improvements in administrative and economic governance have lagged behind those on the political front. Consolidating democracy will thus require institutional capacity building through a combination of appropriate civil society efforts and constructive external pressure to strengthen accountability.

Democracy and institutions in postcolonial Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALAN GREEN
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Spatial Lag ◽  
Postcolonial Africa ◽  
The Cold War

AbstractAfrica has seen a steady rise in democracy since the end of the Cold War. This paper investigates two possible implications of democratization in African countries: better economic growth through improved institutions and less civil conflict through increased political participation. Instrumental variables regressions are estimated with the spatial lag of democracy. This instrument varies over time, allowing for consideration of country fixed effects in IV regressions. Large positive impacts of institutions on economic growth and of political participation on reducing civil conflict are found in IV regressions with fixed effects. Further estimates show that both growth and civil violence effects may be driven by civil liberties.

The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict After the Cold War

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard P. Cincotta ◽  
Robert Engelman ◽  
Daniele Anastasion
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
The Cold War

Chairman cotton: Socialist Bulgaria’s cotton trade with African countries during the early Cold War (1946–70)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jan Zofka
Keyword(s):  
International Trade ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Mutual Economic ◽  
Mutual Economic Assistance ◽  
Globalization Studies ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Cotton Trade

Abstract This article follows Bulgarian officials engaged in cotton and textile exchange with African states in the early Cold War. These officials founded enterprises for carrying out transactions, collected information on prices at international cotton exchanges and attended meetings of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) to coordinate trade activities in capitalist markets. Exploring how Bulgarian foreign trade organizations positioned themselves on the scene of international trade, this article argues that cotton traders, instead of upholding the supposed bloc bipolarity of the Cold War, followed the logic of the markets they worked in. A focus on trade infrastructures in particular shows that early Cold War East–South trade was not as strictly bilateral as official agreements and statistics suggest and reveals the systematic embeddedness of the socialist traders’ practices in global capitalist structures. In the field of cotton, the globalizing economy of the early Cold War was not cut in half, as globalization studies have implied.

Navigating the Complexity of HIV/AIDS in African Peacekeeping Missions: Challenges and Prospects

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 361-384
Author(s):  
Ayodele Akenroye
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Hiv Aids

The end of the Cold War witnessed the resurgence of ethnic conflicts in Africa, which necessitated the deployment of peacekeeping missions in many crisis contexts. The risk of HIV transmission increases in post-conflict environments where peacekeepers are at risk of contracting and spreading HIV/AIDS. In response, UN Security Council Resolution 1308 (2000) stressed the need for the UN to incorporate HIV/AIDS prevention awareness skills and advice in its training for peacekeepers. However, troops in peacekeeping missions remain under national command, thus limiting the UN prerogatives. This article discusses the risk of peacekeepers contracting or transmitting HIV/AIDS, as well as the role of peacekeeping missions in controlling the spread of the disease, and offers an account of the steps taken within UN peacekeeping missions and African regional peacekeeping initiatives to tackle the challenges of HIV/AIDS. While HIV/AIDS remains a scourge that could weaken peacekeeping in Africa, it seems that inertia has set in, making it even more difficult to tackle the complexity of this phenomenon.

Norms, Heresthetics, and the End of the Cold War

2001 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Evangelista
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
Ideational Change ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Constructivist Approaches ◽  
Policy Proposals ◽  
Academic Debate

The academic debate about the end of the Cold War has reached an impasse. Realists draw on evidence of economic decline and external pressure to explain the Soviet Union's retrenchment. Constructivists emphasize ideational change and Mikhail Gorbachev's “new thinking” as the source of accommodation. Neither approach sufficiently accounts for the fact that many powerful Soviet institutions did not support Gorbachev's approach from early on, well before his decisions contributed to the disintegration of the country. Even so, Gorbachev persuaded influential people who disagreed with him to accept his policy proposals. William Riker's concept of heresthetics—the use of language to manipulate the political agenda—goes a long way toward explaining Gorbachev's success. Heresthetics could be a way to bridge the gap between realist and constructivist approaches to international relations.

scholarly journals The Imperative to Explore the Impact of Disarmament on Peacemaking Efforts and Conflict Recurrence

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Levin ◽  
Dan Miodownik
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Internal Armed Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Conflict Termination ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Durable Peace

AbstractThere is today a well-established consensus that belligerents must be disarmed in order to reconstruct shattered states and establish a robust and durable peace in the wake of internal armed conflict. Indeed, nearly every UN peacekeeping intervention since the end of the Cold War has included disarmament provisions in its mandate. Disarmament is guided by the arrestingly simple premise that weapons cause conflict and, therefore, must be eradicated for a civil conflict to end. If the means by which combatants fight are eliminated, it is thought, actors will have little choice but to commit to peace. Disarmament is, therefore, considered a necessary condition for establishing the lasting conditions for peace. To date, however, no systematic quantitative analysis has been undertaken of the practice of disarmament and the causal mechanisms remain underspecified. This paper is a preliminary attempt to fill that gap. In it we outline a series of hypotheses with which to run future statistical analyses on the effects of disarmament programs. The success of negotiations and the durability of peace are, perhaps, the single most salient issues concerning those engaged in conflict termination efforts. We therefore focus the bulk of this paper on a review of the supposed effects of disarmament on negotiating outcomes and war recurrence.

scholarly journals Russia/Nigeria Diplomatic Ties: An Historical Perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 323
Author(s):  
Abimbola Damilola Waliyullahi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Political Economic

The Diplomatic relations between Nigeria and USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) now Russia started over 55 years ago. Russia, being the legitimate heir to the USSR in 1961, opened its Embassy in Lagos with Ambassador Feodor Pavlovich Dolya as the Head of the Mission, Nigeria reciprocated in 1962 in Moscow with Ambassador C.O Ifeagwu as the Head and till this day, both countries have maintained cordial political, economic and cultural relationships but not without some disagreements. However, Soviet involvement in Nigeria, just like in many other African countries diminished greatly in the wake of Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika (reconstruction) of the middle 80s. With the Cold War continuing and the Soviet economy in shambles, the USSR had little incentive to continue its active presence in Africa. By the time of Soviet Union disintegration in 1991, the country had lost much of its influence and prominence in Nigeria and Africa. Nigeria is a focus of this paper as this article examines Russia/Nigeria diplomatic ties from the historical point of view relying on diplomatic theory as a tool to trace the existing diplomatic ties between the two countries.

scholarly journals La politique de neutralité. L’Histoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk

Milli mála ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-61
Author(s):  
Irma Erlingsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Khmer Rouge ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Suffering ◽  
Political Works ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
North Vietnam

The article explores Hélène Cixous’s 1985 play The Terrible Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, King of Cambodia (L´Histoire terrible mais inachevée de Norodom Sihanouk roi du Cambodge) by focusing on Cixous’s portrayal of Sihanouk and her interpretation of Cambodia’s history with references to the country’s civil conflict, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. The article seeks to historicize the play by placing it within the context of contemporary political works on Cambodian history. As embedded in the play’s metanarrative and its contemporary metaphor of human suffering, special attention is paid to Cambodia’s power struggles, both internationally and within its own borders. The emphasis is on the tension between Cixous’s portrayal of Sihanouk as the paternal protector of Cambodia’s “eternal cultural heritage” and his political compromises with internal (the Khmer Rouge) and external (the United States, China, North Vietnam) actors. From a broader perspective, an additional focus is on the conflict between traditionalism and modernization, imperialism and resistance, and territoriality and exile.

scholarly journals Fiocruz as an actor in Brazilian foreign relations in the context of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries: an untold story

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra Carrillo Roa ◽  
Felipe Ricardo Baptista e Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Technical Expertise ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Critical Fields ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Cold War

Brazilian foreign policy paradigms and changes in the global scenario since the Cold War created conditions for stronger ties between Brazil and Portuguese-speaking African countries. Recently, Brazil took the lead in regional integration processes and in South-South cooperation initiatives. These strategies and Fiocruz's acknowledged technical expertise resulted in its direct involvement in Brazilian foreign public health policy in the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries. Fiocruz developed cooperation projects in various areas, sharing its know-how and best practices in the most critical fields in partner countries, consolidating "public health framework cooperation" and contributing to diversifying Brazil's partners and promoting Brazil as a global actor.

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