1st Edition
Routledge Handbook of Conflict Response and Leadership in Africa
This handbook explores the challenges and opportunities for leadership and conflict response in the context of Africa at several levels.
Leadership plays a vital role in affecting conflict response but is frequently only examined at the macro level of state, government, and international organizations. This handbook addresses the need to explore challenges and opportunities for leadership at several levels: macro (global, regional, national), meso (NGOs, religious groups, academics), and micro (civil society organizations, youth groups, women’s organizations). Analysis from multiple levels provides a broader explanation of conflict dynamics and helps to fit localized conflict transformation approaches into wider national or regional structures. The multidisciplinary essays presented in this volume encompass the psychological, political, and structural dimensions of conflict response and demonstrate how its success is fundamentally linked to the style of effectiveness of leadership, among other factors.
The volume is divided into four thematic sections:
- Part I: The theory and dynamics of conflict response and leadership
- Part II: Macro-level leadership experiences in conflict response
- Part III: Meso-/micro-level leadership experiences in conflict response
- Part IV: Recommendations for improved leadership in conflict response
This book will be of much interest to students of conflict resolution, peace studies, African politics, security studies, and international relations, in general.
Introduction
Ian Liebenberg, Alpaslan Özerdem, and Sinem Akgül-Açıkmeşe
PART I: The theory and dynamics of conflict response and leadership
1. The evolution of conflict response: management, resolution and transformation
Alpaslan Özerdem
2. Leadership in conflict response: a conceptual exploration
Sezai Özçelik, Murat Yorulmaz and Serdar Yılmaz
3. Decoding the emerging world order and challenges to global leadership
Tarık Oğuzlu
4. Leadership from a civil society perspective
Jessica Ayesha Northey
5. Leadership, conflict and negotiating sustainable socio-political frameworks in Africa
Ian Liebenberg
Part II: Macro-level leadership experiences in conflict response
6. Conflict response through operations: understanding the leadership roles of the EU and NATO in Africa
Çiğdem Üstün and Sinem Akgül-Açıkmeşe
7. Leadership of the United Nations and African Union in Darfur, 2003-2006
Kathryn Crewe Kelly
8. The Role of IGAD in peacebuilding and conflict resolution: the case of South Sudan
Billy Agwanda, Uğur Yasin Aral, Ahmad Shoaib Ghulam Nabi, and Israel Nyaburi Nyadera
9. Role of regional organizations in peace interventions: ECOWAS interventions in West Africa and macro-level leadership
Burak Toygar Halistoprak
10. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) and conflict response in Madagascar
Mphatso Jones Boti Phiri
11. The role of the United States as a global power in responding to violent conflicts in Africa
Festus Kofi Aubyn
12. Russia in the ‘new scramble for Africa’: a new search for leadership?
İnan Ruma
13. The People’s Republic of China in Africa
Haluk Karadağ
14. Turkey’s peacebuilding response in Africa: the case of Somalia
Elem Eyrice Tepeciklioğlu
15. The political transformation of the North African states in the post-Arab spring period
Laçin İdil Öztığ
16. Maritime security off Africa: perspectives on East and West Africa
Francois Vreÿ
Part III: Meso/micro-level leadership experiences in conflict response
17. Community leadership and alternative approaches to western conflict resolution models
Bezen Balamir Coskun
18. Leading and misleading the flock: understanding the ambivalent record of faith leaders in peacebuilding and conflict prevention
Laura Payne
19. Clan elders and traditional reconciliation in Somalia: exercising servant leadership while rebuilding legitimate state structures
Antti Pentikäinen and Oakley Thomas Hill
20. Rwenzori in Uganda: the failures of reconciliation
Stefano Ruzza
21. Civil society groups’ peace activism and media in Kenya
Zacharia Chiliswa
22. Local communities, ICTs and conflict prevention in Africa: a critical inquiry
Chas Morrison
23. Youth leadership in conflict response in South Africa
Cihan Dizdaroğlu
24. Youth and peacebuilding in West Africa: the experiences of the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP)
Chukwuemeka B. Eze, Levinia Addae-Mensah and Osei Baffour Frimpong
25. Making a difference in peacekeeping operations: voices of South African women peacekeepers, 2000-18
Angela Alchin, Amanda Gouws and Lindy Heinecken
26. Leadership in peacekeeping training: the contribution by KAIPTC to peace and security in West Africa
Naila Salihu
27. Human rights protection and leadership in contemporary African conflicts
Michelle Nel
28. The comparative role of political leadership in alleviating conflict: South Africa and Rwanda
Kula Ishmael Theletsane
PART IV: Recommendations for improved leadership in conflict response
29. How to improve leadership in conflict response in Africa: lessons learned
Sinem Akgül-Açıkmeşe, Alpaslan Özerdem, and Ian Liebenberg
Biography
Alpaslan Özerdem is Dean of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, USA. He is co-editor of Routledge Handbook of Turkish Politics (2019), Comparing Peace Processes (2019), and Routledge Handbook of Peace, Security and Development (2020).
Sinem Akgül-Açıkmeşe is Professor of International Relations and Jean Monnet Chair holder on Hybrid Threats in the EU at Kadir Has University (KHAS), Turkey. She is the co-editor of the book The European Union and the Black Sea: The State of Play (2015).
Ian Liebenberg is Professor in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies (DPAS) at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and Professor Extraordinary in Politics at the Faculty of Military Science (FMS), Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is the editor of A Far-Away War: Angola, 1975-1989 (first edition 2014, second edition 2019) and The Hidden Hand: Covert Operations in South Africa (first edition 1994, revised edition 1998).
'The handbook overall provides a broad but valuable overview of the nature of leadership and conflict in Africa, drawing attention to areas of conflict and leadership that are often understudied. The result is a must-read book for both emerging researchers wishing to understand leadership, peacebuild□ing, and conflict in Africa and established researchers who are interested in improving our understanding of, and approaches to, conflict and leadership.'
Benjamin Hammett, International Peacekeeping, November 2023
