Abstract

The emergence of a New World Order heralding the demise of bipolarity has had dramatic and far-reaching implica tions on the nature, form and intensit y of war and conflict in Afr ica. African wa rs and conflict s have become more let hal, violent , and com pl ex in te rm s of th e mu lt ip li cit y of int er est s and al li anc es bet we en st ate s, multinational corporations, militias, criminal gangs, and vigilantes within and across state boundar ies. The understa nding of conflict , not least the conflic ts themselv es, is increasi ngly complicated by the interfac e between the overrated sweep of global forces and the underr ate d asserti on of loca l authent icit y. The post col d war era may have radi call y chan ged the econom ic and geo-str ate gic conc erns of the West; but such concerns and interests are still shrouded in the dominant security discourses of the cold war era. The traject ory of many of Africa’s contem porary conflic ts are steeped in, and informed by these state-ce ntric security conside rations. The marginal ization of Africa in the current global process is true not least in terms of major development indices; how ever , Africa ’s margin aliz atio n is also big bus ines s. Thi s mar gina liza tion is a consequence not just of the increasing imposition of neo-liberal programmes; it is, in more dire ct and intr usiv e way s, a cons eque nce of incr easi ng glob al mil itar izat ion evident in arms production/sales/transfers, military training/assistance, military bases, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, as well as the increasing privatization of violence evident in the growing intervention of private military companies in state security. In sum, the cont empora ry wave of the global ex pansion of cap ital require s policing, and just as marine power propped up

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Britannica

, so too is

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Americana