Overview

Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises argues that building enduring peace in post-conflict states in Africa requires comprehensive, state-specific approaches that address the multidimensional crises that generated civil conflict and instabilities in these countries. Contributors examine states such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Sudan to demonstrate that peacebuilding projects in each of these states must address the cultural, economic, political, and social root causes of their respective underlying civil conflicts. In addition, contributors prove that peacebuilding projects must be shaped by the centrality of human security: the respect for ethno-cultural diversity, the advancement of human material well-being, the protection of political rights and civil liberties, and the redesigning of the military and security architecture to ensure the safety of all citizens from both internal and external threats.

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9781793643124

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Reviews

In this timely and compelling volume, Kalu and Kieh, two of the most influential Africanists of our time, take on a question that has gnawed at generations of African scholars and policy makers: Why have so many well-intentioned peacebuilding/peace-rebuilding efforts in Africa failed to produce the desired outcome? Their answer, which is based on a sophisticated critique of extant IR theories and an in-depth analysis of seven case studies, implicates the common tendency in both the scholarly literature and the corridors of policy-making that depicts all civil conflicts in Africa as having ethno-communal factors as their root causes. To succeed, therefore, peacebuilders should seek some granularity and avoid formulaic prescriptions. That message is as urgent today as it is applicable to other issue-areas in African affairs.--Clement Eme Adibe, DePaul University This is a remarkable response to the urgent demand for a comprehensive, insightful, and readable anatomy of conflict and peacebuilding in Africa. The sobering case studies--from Burundi to Sudan--reflect and engage diversely complex continental struggles for peace in a context of simmering tensions and war-waging. Collectively, the authors offer richly layered theoretical, historical, juridical, political, and strategically functional analyses, nuanced arguments, and solid evidence. This is compulsory reading for those invested in grappling with the pressing degradations of war. Kalu and Kieh are to be commended for a vitally important contribution that disrupts our complacency and insistently guides us to exciting possibilities for building enduring peace in the African continent.--Peyi Soyinka-Airewele

Professors Kelechi A. Kalu and George Klay Kieh, Jr. have succeeded in editing, with distinction, the book titled Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises. Considering the publication to be very useful and timely, four equally distinguished scholarly endorsers in the fields of political science and history have described the 272-page book as being influential as well as remarkable, brilliant, and a cutting-edge anthology. Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises is a publication that should benefit college students at all levels as well as mainstream researchers, practitioners and the general reader, who wishes to enjoy the latest intellectual excursion into Africa's many civil wars, their conclusions and the lessons expected to be learned.-- African and Asian Studies (AAS) As Africa seeks to silence the gun and promote sustainable peace, this volume is a welcome contribution to knowledge and policy making, as it engages the sources and dimensions of conflicts and the ways, opportunities, and challenges in promoting peacebuilding in Africa, with seven country case-studies. A brilliant volume from seasoned African scholars, the book should serve as a valuable resource for academics, policy makers, development practitioners, and other stakeholders working on Africa's peace project, which constitutes the foundation for the development and structural transformation of the Continent.--Said Adejumobi, Strategic Planning, Results and Oversight Division (SPORD), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) This cutting edge anthology brings together the research findings of some of the best practitioners working in the field of conflict and peacebuilding/peacemaking in war-torn Africa. From Burundi to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in the troubled Great Lakes sub-region; to Sudan and South Sudan, Africa's new nation-state; to Liberia, Africa's oldest republic on the West Coast; the contributors deal with the central issues that cohere around the different civil wars, the multi-trajectories for reconstructing war-torn societies, and the profound ramifications for sustainable peace, stability, democracy, and development on the African continent.--Ibrahim Abdullah, Fourah Bay College and University of Sierra Leone. In this timely and compelling volume, Kalu and Kieh, two of the most influential Africanists of our time, take on a question that has gnawed at generations of African scholars and policy makers: Why have so many well-intentioned peacebuilding/peace-rebuilding efforts in Africa failed to produce the desired outcome? Their answer, which is based on a sophisticated critique of extant IR theories and an in-depth analysis of seven case studies, implicates the common tendency in both the scholarly literature and the corridors of policy-making that depicts all civil conflicts in Africa as having ethno-communal factors as their root causes. To succeed, therefore, peacebuilders should seek some granularity and avoid formulaic prescriptions. That message is as urgent today as it is applicable to other issue-areas in African affairs.--Clement Eme Adibe, DePaul University This is a remarkable response to the urgent demand for a comprehensive, insightful, and readable anatomy of conflict and peacebuilding in Africa. The sobering case studies--from Burundi to Sudan--reflect and engage diversely complex continental struggles for peace in a context of simmering tensions and war-waging. Collectively, the authors offer richly layered theoretical, historical, juridical, political, and strategically functional analyses, nuanced arguments, and solid evidence. This is compulsory reading for those invested in grappling with the pressing degradations of war. Kalu and Kieh are to be commended for a vitally important contribution that disrupts our complacency and insistently guides us to exciting possibilities for building enduring peace in the African continent.--Peyi Soyinka-Airewele

Overall, the book confronts one of the most difficult issues in African politics in an informative, nuanced and thought-provoking way. It is an invaluable read for both scholars and practitioners in this field that has yet to offer an effective way to deliver conflict resolution.-- International Affairs Professors Kelechi A. Kalu and George Klay Kieh, Jr. have succeeded in editing, with distinction, the book titled Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises. Considering the publication to be very useful and timely, four equally distinguished scholarly endorsers in the fields of political science and history have described the 272-page book as being influential as well as remarkable, brilliant, and a cutting-edge anthology. Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises is a publication that should benefit college students at all levels as well as mainstream researchers, practitioners and the general reader, who wishes to enjoy the latest intellectual excursion into Africa's many civil wars, their conclusions and the lessons expected to be learned.-- African and Asian Studies (AAS) As Africa seeks to silence the gun and promote sustainable peace, this volume is a welcome contribution to knowledge and policy making, as it engages the sources and dimensions of conflicts and the ways, opportunities, and challenges in promoting peacebuilding in Africa, with seven country case-studies. A brilliant volume from seasoned African scholars, the book should serve as a valuable resource for academics, policy makers, development practitioners, and other stakeholders working on Africa's peace project, which constitutes the foundation for the development and structural transformation of the Continent.--Said Adejumobi, Strategic Planning, Results and Oversight Division (SPORD), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) This cutting edge anthology brings together the research findings of some of the best practitioners working in the field of conflict and peacebuilding/peacemaking in war-torn Africa. From Burundi to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda in the troubled Great Lakes sub-region; to Sudan and South Sudan, Africa's new nation-state; to Liberia, Africa's oldest republic on the West Coast; the contributors deal with the central issues that cohere around the different civil wars, the multi-trajectories for reconstructing war-torn societies, and the profound ramifications for sustainable peace, stability, democracy, and development on the African continent.--Ibrahim Abdullah, Fourah Bay College and University of Sierra Leone. In this timely and compelling volume, Kalu and Kieh, two of the most influential Africanists of our time, take on a question that has gnawed at generations of African scholars and policy makers: Why have so many well-intentioned peacebuilding/peace-rebuilding efforts in Africa failed to produce the desired outcome? Their answer, which is based on a sophisticated critique of extant IR theories and an in-depth analysis of seven case studies, implicates the common tendency in both the scholarly literature and the corridors of policy-making that depicts all civil conflicts in Africa as having ethno-communal factors as their root causes. To succeed, therefore, peacebuilders should seek some granularity and avoid formulaic prescriptions. That message is as urgent today as it is applicable to other issue-areas in African affairs.--Clement Eme Adibe, DePaul University This is a remarkable response to the urgent demand for a comprehensive, insightful, and readable anatomy of conflict and peacebuilding in Africa. The sobering case studies--from Burundi to Sudan--reflect and engage diversely complex continental struggles for peace in a context of simmering tensions and war-waging. Collectively, the authors offer richly layered theoretical, historical, juridical, political, and strategically functional analyses, nuanced arguments, and solid evidence. This is compulsory reading for those invested in grappling with the pressing degradations of war. Kalu and Kieh are to be commended for a vitally important contribution that disrupts our complacency and insistently guides us to exciting possibilities for building enduring peace in the African continent.--Peyi Soyinka-Airewele

Author Information

Kelechi A. Kalu is professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside. George Klay Kieh, Jr. is dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, professor of Political Science at Texas Southern University, and professor in the Graduate Program in International Relations at the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU), Liberia.

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