Panel 3: The Context, Content and Dynamic of External Actors' Security-Related Policies in Africa

The proposed panel presents mapping studies of the security-related policies of external actors in Africa. The studies were part of SIPRI‟s Africa security and governance project sponsored by the Open Society Institute.

During the cold war, countries in Africa, like many others in the developing world, were influenced by proxy wars and other aspects of superpower rivalry. This was manifested in various types of security and defence agreements, arms transfers and other types of military assistance. Following the cold war, there has been a change in the role of external actors in security-related activities in Africa, in the nature of their activities, as well as in the composition of external actors. Multilateral organizations and countries in the development assistance community began to address issues related to the military and security sectors in their dialogue with recipient countries, in Africa as elsewhere. This trend was reinforced by the emergence of Kaldor‟s “New Wars” and the increasing recognition of the “security-development” nexus. The „War on Terror‟ led to further adjustments in the policies of several external actors towards Africa, with „hard security‟ issues overriding development concerns in some cases.

Some of the most visible changes in the security policies of external actors towards Africa include the European Security and Defence Policy, the US 2006 National Security Strategy, and Russia and China‟s expanding economic interests in Africa, and the broadening of these interests to include security issues. These newer developments have generated a plethora of noteworthy activities. The proposed panel will present mapping studies detailing the content, evolution and dynamic of these developments as a prerequisite to understanding how external actors engage Africa's security complex, and the effects of this engagement.