Clausewitz and African War

Clausewitz and African War
Author: Isabelle Duyvesteyn
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2004-09-30
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135764840

Oil, diamonds, timber, food aid - just some of the suggestions put forward as explanations for African wars in the past decade. Another set of suggestions focuses on ethnic and clan considerations. These economic and ethnic or clan explanations contend that wars are specifically not fought by states for political interests with mainly conventional military means, as originally suggested by Carl von Clausewitz in the 19th century. This study shows how alternative social organizations to the state can be viewed as political actors using war as a political instrument.

Transformation of War

Transformation of War
Author: Martin Van Creveld
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2009-11-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439188890

At a time when unprecedented change in international affairs is forcing governments, citizens, and armed forces everywhere to re-assess the question of whether military solutions to political problems are possible any longer, Martin van Creveld has written an audacious searching examination of the nature of war and of its radical transformation in our own time. For 200 years, military theory and strategy have been guided by the Clausewitzian assumption that war is rational - a reflection of national interest and an extension of politics by other means. However, van Creveld argues, the overwhelming pattern of conflict in the post-1945 world no longer yields fully to rational analysis. In fact, strategic planning based on such calculations is, and will continue to be, unrelated to current realities. Small-scale military eruptions around the globe have demonstrated new forms of warfare with a different cast of characters - guerilla armies, terrorists, and bandits - pursuing diverse goals by violent means with the most primitive to the most sophisticated weapons. Although these warriors and their tactics testify to the end of conventional war as we've known it, the public and the military in the developed world continue to contemplate organized violence as conflict between the super powers. At this moment, armed conflicts of the type van Creveld describes are occurring throughout the world. From Lebanon to Cambodia, from Sri Lanka and the Philippines to El Salvador, the Persian Gulf, and the strife-torn nations of Eastern Europe, violent confrontations confirm a new model of warfare in which tribal, ethnic, and religious factions do battle without high-tech weapons or state-supported armies and resources. This low-intensity conflict challenges existing distinctions between civilian and solder, individual crime and organized violence, terrorism and war. In the present global atmosphere, practices that for three centuries have been considered uncivilized, such as capturing civilians or even entire communities for ransom, have begun to reappear. Pursuing bold and provocative paths of inquiry, van Creveld posits the inadequacies of our most basic ideas as to who fights wars and why and broaches the inevitability of man's need to "play" at war. In turn brilliant and infuriating, this challenge to our thinking and planning current and future military encounters is one of the most important books on war we are likely to read in our lifetime.

Whatever Happened to Somalia?

Whatever Happened to Somalia?
Author: John Drysdale
Publisher: Haan Publishing
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN:

This is a study of United Nations/United States intervention and experimentation with peacekeeping and peacemaking in the post-cold war international arena. In 1992-93, Somalia was the testing ground, and the UN found itself with a policy dilemma that has become known as "the Mogadishu line." This account of the period is told from an "on the ground" perspective by a political analyst with five decades of African and Asian affairs experience and who is a veteran of Somali politics. Beginning in November 1991, there was heavy fighting in the Somali capital of Mogadishu between soldiers in alliance with General Mohamed Farah Aidid and those in alliance with Ali Mohamed Mahdi, the appointed interim president, as well as other, smaller factions. In addition to Mogadishu, there was also conflict in Kismayo. In the northwest, local leaders were pushing to create an independent "Somaliland." The country as a whole was without any form of central government. The fighting took place at a time of serious drought and that combination proved disastrous for the population at large. By 1992 almost 4.5 million people were threatened with starvation, severe malnutrition and related diseases. Overall, an estimated 300,000 people died. Some 2 million people, violently displaced from their home areas, fled to either neighboring countries or elsewhere within Somalia. All of the central government and at least 60 percent of the country's basic infrastructure were lost. The United Nations Operation in Somalia was set up to provide humanitarian aid to people trapped by civil war and famine. The mission developed into a broad attempt to help stop the conflict and reestablish the basic framework of aviable government. In an important new preface to this edition, "Mogadishu, the Fatal Attraction, " those extraordinary times are revisited, and the author takes a fresh look at significant turning points in the terrible saga and, continuing the analysis through to the year 2001, re-examines why pious hopes remain unfulfilled. The author's exclusive reporting of events during the momentous period covered, is based on conversations with protagonists, reports from oral sources, and knowledge from his own unique vantage point as political adviser to the UN Secretary General's Special Representative to Somalia. This book remains essential reading for the study of international relations and conflict in this part of the Horn of Africa.

War and Peace in Somalia

War and Peace in Somalia
Author: Michael Keating
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 622
Release: 2019-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190057963

For the last thirty years Somalia has experienced violence and upheaval. Today, the international effort to help Somalis build a federal state and achieve stability is challenged by deep-rooted grievances, local conflicts and a powerful insurgency led by Al-Shabaab. Consisting of forty-four chapters by conflict resolution specialists and the world's leading experts on Somalia, this volume constitutes a unique compendium of insights into the insurgency and its impact. War and Peace in Somalia explores the legacies of past violence, especially impunity, illegitimacy and exclusion, and the need for national reconciliation. Drawing on decades of experience and months of field research, the contributors throw light on diverse forms of local conflict, its interrelated causes, and what can be done about it. They share original research on the role of women, men and youth in the conflict, and present new insight into Al-Shabaab--particularly the group's multi-dimensional strategy, the motivations of its fighters, their foreign links, and the prospects for engagement. This ground-breaking volume illuminates the war in Somalia, and sets out what can and should be done to bring it to an end. For policymakers and researchers covering Somalia, East Africa, extremism or conflict resolution, this is a must-read.

Morality and Foreign Policy

Morality and Foreign Policy
Author: Kenneth Martin Jensen
Publisher: US Institute of Peace Press
Total Pages: 100
Release: 1991
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781878379092

Focusing on post-World War II American foreign policy and its intellectual architect, George Kennan, this volume explores the moral dimensions of realpolitik and the ethical dilemmas posed by present-day politics. Is Kennan responsible for persuading the U.S. foreign policy establishment that morality should go by the wayside? Or was Kennan right to regard as "presumptuous" the idea that Americans should tell other societies how to behave? Kennan gives his own influential view in an article reprinted here from Foreign Affairs (1985/96). (Workshop 6)

Modern African Conflicts

Modern African Conflicts
Author: Timothy J. Stapleton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 513
Release: 2022-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN:

An essential resource for students or general readers interested in post-colonial Africa, this encyclopedia provides coverage of different regions, countries, wars, battles, factions, leaders, and foreign powers. Armed conflict represents a substantial part of African history since around 1960, yet this history is either insufficiently taught or overshadowed by negative stereotypes about African "tribal warfare." In an effort to introduce this vital topic to students and general readers alike, this one-volume encyclopedia provides concise historical information on conflicts that occurred in postcolonial Africa. The entries cover all the regions of Africa (North, West, Central, East, and Southern); the Cold War and post–Cold War periods; a range of important leaders; various types of conflicts from civil wars and insurgencies to conventional military engagements; involvement of foreign powers; and such themes as airpower, women and war, and genocide.

The Horn of Africa since the 1960s

The Horn of Africa since the 1960s
Author: Aleksi Ylönen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2017-02-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317028562

The Horn of Africa has long been one of the most dynamic and politically turbulent sub-regions on the African continent. Host to great ancient civilizations, diverse peoples, and expansive states, the region has experienced massive social, economic, and political transformations which have given rise to military coups, revolutions and intractable ethnic, socio-economic, and religious conflicts. This comprehensive volume brings together a team of expert scholars who analyze international, regional, national, and local affairs in the Horn of Africa. The chapters demonstrate the intertwined nature of the actors and forces shaping political realities. The case studies, focusing on Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, and South Sudan eloquently illustrate the complex dynamics connecting the spectrum of political issues in the region. The Horn of Africa since the 1960s will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary Africa and political science.

The African Union (AU)

The African Union (AU)
Author: Konstantinos D. Magliveras
Publisher: Kluwer Law International B.V.
Total Pages: 573
Release: 2024-01-18
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9403500085

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this practical analysis of the structure, competence, and management of the African Union (AU) provides substantial and readily accessible information for lawyers, academics, and policymakers likely to have dealings with its activities and data. No other book gives such a clear, uncomplicated description of the organization’s role, its rules and how they are applied, its place in the framework of international law, or its relations with other organizations. The monograph proceeds logically from the organization’s genesis and historical development to the structure of its membership, its various organs and their mandates, its role in intergovernmental cooperation, and its interaction with decisions taken at the national level. Its competence, its financial management, and the nature and applicability of its data and publications are fully described. Systematic in presentation, this valuable time-saving resource offers the quickest, easiest way to acquire a sound understanding of the workings of the African Union (AU) for all interested parties. Students and teachers of international law will find it especially valuable as an essential component of the rapidly growing and changing global legal milieu.