Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T17:08:41.708Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mediating Solutions to Territorial Civil Wars in Africa: Norms, Interests, and Major Power Leverage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2018

Allard Duursma
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article draws on the concept of “identity interests” to explain why commitment to the territorial integrity norm in the context of African peace processes has persisted over such a long period of time, even as continental and international contexts have changed. One major implication of this commitment to the territorial integrity norm is that third parties involved in peacemaking in Africa have consistently refrained from promoting a negotiated settlement that might pave the way for independence; they have only pushed for a territorial revision in a few instances. The role of major powers has been crucial with regard to the few successful territorial changes in Africa since 1960. An overview of all outcomes of mediation in territorial intrastate conflicts in Africa—as well as seven case studies—support this argument.

Résumé:

Cet article s’appuie sur le concept des « intérêts identitaires » pour expliquer pourquoi l’engagement avec la norme sur l’intégrité territoriale dans le cadre des processus de paix africains a persisté pendant une période si longue - même si les contextes continentaux et internationaux ont changé. Une des implications majeures de cet engagement à la norme sur l’intégrité territoriale abordée dans cet article, est que les tiers impliqués dans le rétablissement de la paix en Afrique se sont constamment abstenus de promouvoir un accord de règlement qui aurait pu ouvrir une voie vers l’indépendance ; dans certains cas ils n’ont seulement poussé que pour une révision territoriale. Cette étude soutient également que le rôle de grandes puissances a été décisif dans certains changements territoriaux réussis en Afrique depuis 1960. Un récapitulatif des aboutissements de la médiation dans les conflits territoriaux interétatiques en Afrique ainsi que sept études de cas soutien cet thèse.

Resumo:

Partindo do conceito de “interesses de identidade”, este artigo procura explicar os motivos pelos quais a defesa do princípio da integridade territorial perdurou por tão longo tempo no contexto dos processos de paz em África — prevalecendo mesmo quando os contextos continentais e internacionais se alteraram. Uma das principais consequências desta defesa do princípio da integridade territorial, sobre a qual o presente artigo se debruça, é que as terceiras partes envolvidas nos processos de paz em África sempre se abstiveram de promover a negociação de acordos que pudessem abrir caminho à independência; só em algumas instâncias, procuraram implementar a revisão dos territórios. Além disso, defende-se que o papel desempenhado pelas grandes potências foi determinante para os poucos casos bem-sucedidos de alteração territorial ocorridos em África desde 1960. A sustentar esta argumentação, apresenta-se resumidamente o desfecho de todos os casos de mediação em conflitos territoriais dentro de Estados africanos, bem como sete estudos de caso.

Keywords

mediationcivil warterritoryterritorial integritynormsinterestsmajor power leverage
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 65 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

African Union. 2002. Constitutive Act of the African Union, Durban, South Africa , 9 July 2002.Google Scholar
Alier, Abel. 1990. Southern Sudan: Too many agreements dishonoured. Exeter: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Amate, Charles O. C. 1986. Inside the OAU: Pan-Africanism in practice. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Amoo, Samuel G., and Zartman, William I.. 1992. Mediation by regional organizations: The Organization for Africa Unity. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brosché, Johan, and Duursma, Allard. 2018. “Hurdles to peace: A level-of-analysis approach to resolving Sudan’s civil wars.” Third World Quarterly 39 (3): 560–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Červenka, Zdenek. 1977. The unfinished quest for unity: Africa and the Organisation of African Unity. London: J. Friedman.Google Scholar
Clapham, Christopher S. 1996. Africa and the international system: The politics of state survival. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cockett, Richard. 2010. Sudan: Darfur and the failure of an African state. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Cornwell, Richard. 1998. “Anjouan: A spat in the Indian Ocean.” African Security Review 7 (3): 51–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crocker, Chester A. 1994. High noon in Southern Africa: Making peace in a rough neighborhood . Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball Publishers.Google Scholar
De St. Jorre, John. 1972. The brothers’ war: Biafra and Nigeria. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Deng, Francis D., and Medani, Khalid M.. 1996. “Civil war and identity in Sudan’s foreign policy.” In Africa in the new international order: Rethinking state sovereignty and regional security, edited by Keller, Edmond J. and Rothchild, Donald, 100–118. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Durch, William J. 1993. “Building on sand: UN peacekeeping in the Western Sahara.” International Security 17 (4): 151–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duursma, Allard. 2014. “A current literature review of international mediation.” International Journal of Conflict Management 25 (1): 81–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duursma, Allard. 2017a. “Partnering to make peace: The effectiveness of joint African and non-African mediation efforts.” International Peacekeeping 24 (4): 590–615.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duursma, Allard. 2017b. “When to get out of the trench: Using smart pressure to resolve civil wars. Civil Wars 17 (1): 43–61.Google Scholar
El-Affendi, Abdelwahab. 2001. “The impasse in the IGAD peace process for Sudan: the limits of regional peacemaking?” African Affairs 100 (401): 581–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Englebert, Pierre, and Hummel, Rebecca. 2005. “Let’s stick together: Understanding Africa’s secessionist deficit.” African Affairs 104 (416): 399–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fearon, James D. 2004. “Why do some civil wars last so much longer than others?” Journal of Peace Research 41 (3): 275–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnemore, Martha. 1996. National interests in international society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Finnemore, Martha, and Kathryn, Sikkink. 1998. “International norm dynamics and political change.” International Organization 52 (4): 887–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frederick, Bryan A., Hensel, Paul R., and Macaulay, Christopher. 2017. “The issue correlates of war territorial claims data, 1816–2011.” Journal of Peace Research 54 (1): 99–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gulliver, Philip. 1979. Disputes and negotiations: a cross-cultural perspective. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hassan, Hamdy A. 2009. “The Comoros and the crisis of building a national state.” Contemporary Arab Affairs 2 (2): 229–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassner, Ron E. 2003. “To halve and to hold: Conflicts over sacred space and the problem of indivisibility.” Security Studies 12 (4): 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey. 1989. “The creation and maintenance of national boundaries in Africa.” International Organization 43 (04): 673–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPS News. August 21, 1997. “Comoro islands: OAU warns of the consequences of secession.”Google Scholar
Iyob, Ruth, and Khadiagala, Gilbert M.. 2006. Sudan: The elusive quest for peace. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Jackson, Richard. 2000. “The dangers of regionalising international conflict management: The African experience.” Political Science 52 (1): 41–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Robert H. 1990. Quasi-states: sovereignty, international relations, and the Third World. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jackson, Robert H., and Rosberg, Carl G.. 1982. “Why Africa’s weak states persist: The empirical and the juridical in statehood.” World Politics 35 (1): 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jepperson, Ronald L., Wendt, Alexander, and Katzenstein, Peter J.. 1996. “Norms, identity, and culture in national security.” In The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 33–78. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Johnston, Alastair Iain. 1996. “Cultural realism and strategy in Maoist China.” In The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 216–70. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J. 1996. “Introduction: alternative perspectives on national security.” In The culture of national security: norms and identity in world politics, edited by Katzenstein, Peter J., 1–32. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Khadiagala, Gilbert M. 2007. Meddlers or mediators? African interveners in civil conflicts in Eastern Africa. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Khalifa, Mohamed E. 1999. Ten Years of Peacemaking in Sudan: 1989–1999. Khartoum: Kofpa.Google Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich. 1989. Rules, norms and decisions: on the conditions of practical and legal reasoning in international relations and domestic affairs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labella, Labella. 2003. “The Western Sahara conflict: A case study of UN peacekeeping in the post Cold War world.” Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies 29 (2/3): 67–109.Google Scholar
Layachi, Azzedine. 1994. “The OAU and Western Sahara: A Case Study.” In The Organization of African Unity after thirty years, edited by El-Ayouty, Yassin., 27–39. London: Praeger.Google Scholar
March, James G., Olsen, Johan P. 1998. “The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders.” International Organization 52 (4): 943–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maundi, Mohammed Omar, Zartman, William, Khadiagala, Gilbert M., and Nuamah, Kwaku. 2006. Getting in: mediators’ entry into the settlement of African conflicts. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Melber, Henning, and Saunders, Christopher. 2007. “Conflict Mediation in Decolonisation: Namibia’s Transition to Independence.” Africa Spectrum 42 (1): 73–94.Google Scholar
Meyers, B. David. 1974. “Intraregional Conflict Management by the Organization of African Unity.” International Organization 28 (3): 345–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naldi, Gino J. 1998. “Separatism in the Comoros: Some Legal Aspects.” Leiden Journal of International Law 11 (2): 247–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naldi, Gino J. 1999. The Organization of African Unity: an analysis of its role . Bloomsbury Academic: London.Google Scholar
Naldi, Gino J. 1982. “The Organization of African Unity and the Saharan Arab Democratic Republic.” Journal of African Law 26 (2): 152–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Organization of African Unity. 1963. OAU Charter, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 25 May 1963Google Scholar
Organization of African Unity. 1967. Resolution Adopted at the Fourth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity meeting in Kinshasa, Congo, September 11–14, 1967, AHG/Res. 51 (IV).Google Scholar
Organization of African Unity. 1983. Resolution on Western Sahara adopted at the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June 6–12, 1983, AHG/Res. 104–20 (XIX).Google Scholar
Papp, Daniel S. 1993. “The Angolan Civil War and Namibia: The Role of External Intervention.” In Making war and waging peace: foreign intervention in Africa, edited by Smock, David R., 161–96. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Pettersson, Therése, and Wallensteen, Peter. 2015. “Armed conflicts, 1946–2014.” Journal of Peace Research 52 (4).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothchild, Donald. 1997a. “Unofficial mediation and the Nigeria-Biafra war.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 3 (3): 37–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothchild, Donald. 1997b. Managing ethnic conflict in Africa: Pressures and incentives for cooperation. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Rothchild, Donald, and Hartzell, Caroline. 1995. “Interstate and intrastate negotiations in Angola.” In Elusive peace: Negotiating an end to civil wars, edited by Zartman, William I., 175–203. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Sater, James N. 2009. Morocco: Challenges to Tradition and Modernity. London: Taylor and Francis.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seawright, Jason, and Gerring, John. 2008. “Case selection techniques in case study research: A menu of qualitative and quantitative options.” Political Research Quarterly 61 (2): 294–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sesay, Amadu, Ojo, Olusola, and Fasehun, Orobola. 1984. The OAU after twenty years. London: Westview.Google Scholar
Sisk, Timothy D. 2009. International mediation in civil wars: bargaining with bullets. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smock, David R. and Gregorian, Hrach. 1993. “Introduction.” In Making war and waging peace: foreign intervention in Africa, edited by Smock, David R., 1–26. Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press.Google Scholar
Sprout, Harold Hance, and Sprout, Margaret. 1968. An ecological paradigm for the study of international politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stremlau, John J. 1977. The international politics of the Nigerian civil war, 1967–1970. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Toft, Monica. 2003. The geography of ethnic violence: identity, interests, and the indivisibility of territory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tome, Vicente 1992. “Maintaining credibility as a partial mediator - United-States mediation in Southern Africa, 1981–1988.” Negotiation Journal-on the Process of Dispute Settlement 8 (3): 273–89.Google Scholar
Touval, Saadia. 1972. The boundary politics of independent Africa. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Touval, Saadia. 1992. “The Superpowers as mediators.” In Mediation in international relations: multiple approaches to conflict management, edited by Bercovitch, Jacob and Rubin, Jeffery Z., 232–48. Basingstoke: Macmillan.Google Scholar
United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 on Namibia (29 September 1978), S/RES/435.Google Scholar
Walter, Barbara F. 2006. “Building reputation: Why governments fight some separatists but not others.” American Journal of Political Science 50 (2): 313–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wöndu, Steven, and Lesch, Ann Mosely. 2000. Battle for peace in Sudan: An analysis of the Abuja conferences, 1992–1993. Lanham: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Woodward, Peter. 2006. US foreign policy and the Horn of Africa. Burlington: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Young, John. 1998. “The Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front.” In African Guerrillas, edited by Clapham, Christopher S., 36–52. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Zacher, Mark W. 2003. “The territorial integrity norm: International boundaries and the use of force.” International Organization 55 (2): 215–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zartman, William I. 1984. “The OAU in the African state system: Interaction and evaluation.” In The OAU after twenty years, edited by El-Ayouty, Yassin and Zartman, William I.. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Zartman, William I. 1985. Ripe for resolution: Conflict and intervention in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zartman, William I. 2005. Comparative Case Studies. International Negotiation 10 (1): 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zartman, William I., and Touval, Saadia. 1985. International mediation in theory and practice. Washington, D.C: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Zoubir, Yahia H. 1996. “The Western Sahara conflict: A case study in failure of prenegotiation and prolongation of conflict.” California Western international law journal 26 (2): 173–213.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Duursma supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Duursma supplementary material(File)
File 20.6 KB