In recent decades, African states have developed an impressive infrastructure for training their peacekeepers. In addition, peacekeeping, peacebuilding and associated areas of conflict resolution ...have become significant areas of employment. Marco Jowell has spent a decade working in peacekeeping training in East Africa – initially as one of the foreign ‘Technical Advisers’ at the Peace Support Operations (PSO) training centre in Kenya, the International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC) and subsequently as a strategic adviser to the Rwanda Peace Academy. Using first-hand experience, he considers how military forces from a variety of African states – with great differences in history, language and political systems and with militaries with different cultures and capabilities – can conduct complicated multinational peacekeeping operations. He shows how regional peacekeeping training centres provide an environment for African elites, predominately military, to interact with each other through shared training and experiences. This process of interaction, or socialisation, improves skills but also encourages cohesion so that future African-led missions will be managed by well-trained officers who are comfortable and willing to work within a regional or Pan-African framework. Jowell shows that part of the aim of peacekeeping training centres is to foster a Pan-African ‘outward’ looking ideology or disposition as well as improving technical ability. This book will be essential reading for all involved with African military and security studies and analysts of peacekeeping training and operations.
Peacekeeping training centres in Africa are numerous. These centres are part of broader military assistance programmes provided by bilateral or multilateral donors and are completely funded from ...outside. The intent is threefold: to improve peacekeeping; to professionalise national defence forces in African states through training and instruction in international norms and to provide areas of socialisation between African militaries in order to foster bonds and forge ties in the hope that the potential for regional conflict will reduce through these elite relationships. This paper argues that few of these intended outcomes are achieved. Using peace support operation training in Kenya and an analysis of organisational functionality it is argued that African militaries reflect the broader socio-political dynamics of the state and are typically patrimonial in nature. By providing patrimonial military institutions with significant external resources such as training centres, foreign donors can actively exacerbate internal patrimonial dynamics. This will, of course, take different forms depending on the nature of the military and the nature of the state. What is common, however, is that foreign military assistance in Africa is subverted for national and usually internal reasons as opposed to the intended and more outward-oriented aims.
Since the collapse of Rwanda's state institutions in 1994, including the state's security apparatus, the military has been at the centre of the country's politics and development. Crucial to the ...political and economic strategy of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) is the national army. However, analysis is scarce on the politics of the Rwandan military and how it has been constituted and forged since the RPF came to power. This paper seeks to address this under-researched area by investigating the processes used by the government of Rwanda to develop its national defence forces. In doing so it avoids simplistic narratives such as ethnic subjugation and instead highlights the unique factors leading to the creation of today's RDF and how it has been forged through various socialization experiences such as training, fighting together and peacekeeping as well as an emphasis on welfare and political education. Furthermore, it is posited that the military reflects the broader political landscape in Rwanda, and that decision-making is underscored by concepts of tradition, liberation and modernity. How these concepts interrelate is the key to understanding the military in Rwanda, but also wider governance mechanisms and strategies employed by the RPF.
Conflict resolution in the African Great Lakes Region has been linked to the protocols and projects agreed upon at the Second International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The ICGLR ...created a continental-wide framework of conflict circuit breakers focused on resolving the structural and surface situational causes of the 1996 to 2003 armed conflicts that drew in at least six nations and destabilised the entire region. The implementation of these protocols and projects will serve as a test for the African Great Lakes Region to move away from conflict and into a cooperation and development phase; however, the effort to bring peace, stability and development will face obstacles not only in the security sector, but also in developing infrastructure, civil society, and good governance. In summary, this article contends that peace in the Great Lakes Region will depend equally on two factors: internal governance and building civil society institutions, and focused regional interlocking circuit-breaking institutions.
Conflict resolution in the African Great Lakes Region has been linked to the protocols and projects agreed upon at the Second International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). The ICGLR ...created a continental-wide framework of conflict circuit breakers focused on resolving the structural and surface situational causes of the 1996 to 2003 armed conflicts that drew in at least six nations and destabilised the entire region. The implementation of these protocols and projects will serve as a test for the African Great Lakes Region to move away from conflict and into a cooperation and development phase; however, the effort to bring peace, stability and development will face obstacles not only in the security sector, but also in developing infrastructure, civil society, and good governance. In summary, this article contends that peace in the Great Lakes Region will depend equally on two factors: internal governance and building civil society institutions, and focused regional interlocking circuit-breaking institutions.
