Grey Zone Conflicts in Africa Shaping Africa’s Security Environment in the 21st Century

Foreword, Eeben Barlow, SM  Part I: Conceptual Foundations and Historical Roots  1. Grey Zone Conflict in Africa: A Conceptual and Strategic Introduction, Dries Putter and Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann  2. Liberation Struggle as Grey Zone Conflict: The ANC and the Demise of Apartheid, Ditebogo Phyllia Nare and Dries Putter  Part II: Alliances, Strategic Culture and Great‑Power Competition  3. The Alliance of Sahel States: Navigating Ambiguity and Power in West Africa’s Grey Zone, Adewale Opeyemi  4. Strategic Culture of the People’s Republic of China: Implications for its activities in Africa, Wolfgang Müller  5. The Potential Impact of Chinese FDI an Foreign Aid in Securing China’s Dominance in Africa, Nina‑Mari Taylor  6. Russian Grey Zone Warfare in Africa, Barend L. Prinsloo and Lincoln Cave  Part III: Russian Instruments and Theatres of Influence  7. Russia’s Grey Zone Strategy in Africa: Grain and Fertilizers as a Source of Geopolitical Influence, Tomáš Petříček and Ondřej Ditrych  8. Wagner, Rebels and the Quagmire of the Central African Republic, Hassan Njifon Njoya  Part IV: Liberal Order, Sanctions and Competing Statecraft  9. The Impact of Foreign Interference on State-Society Relations: Zimbabwe and the Western Bloc on the Grey Zone, Edson Ziso  10. Cyber-Based Sanctions in Africa,  Graeme Plint and Elize Labuschagne  Part V: Cognitive Warfare, NGOs and the Battle of Narratives  11. Hybrid Warfare, Democracy and NGOs: A Case Study on the Mediterranean, Håkan Gunneriusson  12. Disinformation and the Application of International Law in Cyberspace, Peter B.M.J. Pijpers and Lotte Nietzman  13. Africa, Europe’s Colonial Past, and the Politics of Responsibility: The Strategic Use of Historical Narratives in Hybrid, Grey Zone, and Cognitive Warfare, Håkan Gunneriusson and Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann  14. Cognitive Warfare: Manipulating thought in the African Grey Zone, Dries Putter and Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann  Part VI: Synthesis and Future Directions  15. Grey Zone Conflict in Africa: A Conceptual and Analytical Framework, Dries Putter and Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann

Biography

Dries Putter is Division Head for Security and Africa Studies, Senior Lecturer in Defence Intelligence Studies at Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Military Science, South Africa, and Extraordinary Researcher at North-West University’s Centre for Geopolitical Security and Strategy. He is active duty with the rank of Captain (Navy).

Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann is Professor in International Law and Security at the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Business, Government and Law, Australia. He is an extraordinary Reader in War Studies (Docent) at the Swedish Defence University. He is affiliated with the Department of Strategic Studies, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, and the Risk and Crisis Centre, Mid Sweden University. Sascha is a Lieutenant Colonel (German Army Reserves) with operational experience in peace support missions.

'We don’t know enough about Africa and its complex geographical and geopolitical security landscape.  This book helps to fill the void in our knowledge and explains the nature of the conflicts emerging there.  It holds important lessons for the rest of the world.'

Lieutenant General (RETD) Professor Peter Leahy, Former Head of the Australian Army

'This edited collection will become the standard text on hybrid warfare in Africa. It fills an empirical gap in the ever burgeoning literature on this form of conflict, whilst shedding much-needed light on the overlooked nature of such threats on the African continent.'

Andrew Mumford, Professor of War Studies, University of Nottingham, UK

'Exploring the concept of grey zone in all its dimensions, and expanding the concept of hybrid warfare at its maximum, this book by Bachmann and Putter associates new forms of conflict with the geopolitical visions of major competitors such as Russia and China. Africa is not merely a periphery but a fertile playground due to its fragmented security landscape, and has become the new arena where competition among great powers plays out.'

Guillaume Lasconjarias, Director Research and Studies, French High Institute for National Defense (IHEDN)

'Hybrid warfare and grey zone activities are concepts that are now well established in literature on modern conflict, thanks in part to the work of colleagues such as Sascha Dov Bachmann and Håkan Gunneriusson. Understanding these concepts is critical now that international norms are giving way to coercion and threatened use of force. It is timely and illuminating therefore to read this collection in the context of Africa, where major powers are increasingly exercising such statecraft, but so too are other actors and African nations themselves.'

Andrew Dowse, Senior Non-resident Fellow, RAND Australia

'Grey Zone Conflict in Africa is a fascinating book co-edited by Dries Putter and Sascha-Dominik Dov Bachmann; connecting the reader to the African battlespace in the conduct of hybrid warfare in various weak and fragmented African nation-states. The book is a must-read for current and future military practitioners, security experts and members of the diplomatic corps.'

Brigadier General (Retd) Marcelino Peter Sereko, Advisory Board Member, Centre for Geopolitical Security and Strategy (NWU, SA)