The Market for Force

The Market for Force
Author: Deborah D. Avant
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2005-07-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781139446549

The legitimate use of force is generally presumed to be the realm of the state. However, the flourishing role of the private sector in security over the last twenty years has brought this into question. In this book Deborah Avant examines the privatization of security and its impact on the control of force. She describes the growth of private security companies, explains how the industry works, and describes its range of customers – including states, non-government organisations and commercial transnational corporations. She charts the inevitable trade-offs that the market for force imposes on the states, firms and people wishing to control it, suggests a new way to think about the control of force, and offers a model of institutional analysis that draws on both economic and sociological reasoning. The book contains case studies drawn from the US and Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East.

African Politics

African Politics
Author: Ian Taylor
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2018-09-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0192529242

Africa is a continent of 54 countries and over a billion people. However, despite the rich diversity of the African experience, it is striking that continuations and themes seem to be reflected across the continent, particularly south of the Sahara. Questions of underdevelopment, outside exploitation, and misrule are characteristic of many - if not most-states in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this Very Short Introduction Ian Taylor explores how politics is practiced on the African continent, considering the nature of the state in Sub-Saharan Africa and why its state structures are generally weaker than elsewhere in the world. Exploring the historical and contemporary factors which account for Africa's underdevelopment, he also analyses why some African countries suffer from high levels of political violence while others are spared. Unveilling the ways in which African state and society actually function beyond the formal institutional façade, Taylor discusses how external factors - both inherited and contemporary - act upon the continent. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Unlocking Africa's Business Potential

Unlocking Africa's Business Potential
Author: Landry Signe
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2020-04-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0815737394

Africa welcomes business investment and offers some of the world's highest returns and impacts Africa has tremendous economic potential and offers rewarding opportunities for global businesses looking for new markets and long-term investments with favorable returns. Africa has been one of the world's fastest-growing regions over the past decade, and by 2030 will be home to nearly 1.7 billion people and an estimated $6.7 trillion worth of consumer and business spending. Increased political stability in recent years and improving regional integration are making market access easier, and business expansion will generate jobs for women and youth, who represent the vast majority of the population. Current economic growth and poverty-alleviation efforts mean that more than 43 percent of the continent's people will reach middle- or upper-class status by 2030. Unlocking Africa's Business Potential examines business opportunities in the eight sectors with the highest potential returns on private investment—the same sectors that will foster economic growth and diversification, job creation, and improved general welfare. These sectors include: consumer markets, agriculture and agriprocessing, information and communication technology, manufacturing, oil and gas, tourism, banking, and infrastructure and construction. The book's analysis of these sectors is based on case studies that identify specific opportunities for investment and growth, along with long-term market projections to inform decision-making. The book identifies potential risks to business and offers mitigation strategies. It also provides policymakers with solutions to attract new business investments, including how to remove barriers to business and accelerate development of the private sector.

State and Societal Challenges in the Horn of Africa

State and Societal Challenges in the Horn of Africa
Author: Collectif
Publisher: Centro de Estudos Internacionais
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2017-08-04
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9898862475

This book brings to fruition the research done during the CEA-ISCTE project ‘’Monitoring Conflicts in the Horn of Africa’’, reference PTDC/AFR/100460/2008. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) provided funding for this project. The chapters are based on first-hand data collected through fieldwork in the region’s countries between 4 January 2010 and 3 June 2013. The project’s team members and consultants debated their final research findings in a one-day Conference at ISCTE-IUL on 29 April 2013. The following authors contributed to the project’s final publication: Alexandra M. Dias, Alexandre de Sousa Carvalho, Aleksi Ylönen, Ana Elisa Cascão, Elsa González Aimé, Manuel João Ramos, Patrick Ferras, Pedro Barge Cunha and Ricardo Real P. Sousa.

Budgeting for the Military Sector in Africa

Budgeting for the Military Sector in Africa
Author: Wuyi Omitoogun
Publisher:
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780199262663

In this comprehensive study, 15 African experts describe and analyse the military budgetary processes and degree of parliamentary oversight and control in nine countries of Africa, spanning across all the continent's sub-regions. Each case study addresses a wide range of questions, such as the roles of the ministries of finance, budget offices, audit departments and external actors in the military budgetary processes, the extent of compliance with standard public expenditure management procedures, and how well official military expenditure figures reflect the true economic resources devoted to military activities in these countries.

Our Continent, Our Future

Our Continent, Our Future
Author: P. Thandika Mkandawire
Publisher: IDRC
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2014-05-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 155250204X

Our Continent, Our Future presents the emerging African perspective on this complex issue. The authors use as background their own extensive experience and a collection of 30 individual studies, 25 of which were from African economists, to summarize this African perspective and articulate a path for the future. They underscore the need to be sensitive to each country's unique history and current condition. They argue for a broader policy agenda and for a much more active role for the state within what is largely a market economy. Finally, they stress that Africa must, and can, compete in an increasingly globalized world and, perhaps most importantly, that Africans must assume the leading role in defining the continent's development agenda.

Dead Aid

Dead Aid
Author: Dambisa Moyo
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2009-03-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0374139563

Debunking the current model of international aid promoted by both Hollywood celebrities and policy makers, Moyo offers a bold new road map for financing development of the world's poorest countries.

African Conflicts and Informal Power

African Conflicts and Informal Power
Author: Mats Utas
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2012-09-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1848138857

In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

Understanding African Armies

Understanding African Armies
Author: David Chuter
Publisher:
Total Pages: 71
Release: 2016
Genre: Africa
ISBN: 9789291984824

Over the past few years, a significant and growing share of CSDP missions and operations has been devoted to training and capacity-building in fragile countries and regions in Africa, from the Horn to the Great Lakes, from the Sahel to the Gulf of Guinea. While this shift in focus and emphasis reflects the challenges that the EU and the wider international community are increasingly confronted with in Africa, it is a fact that the efforts put into such activities have produced very modest results so far. It is therefore legitimate to wonder what is going wrong, and why. African armies are very different from one another, and they are also very different from European (and more generally Western) armies. Their historical roots and traditions, the way they were shaped after independence, their domestic functions and operational roles tend to vary significantly (although they are not completely unrelated to past European experiences) and, above all, cannot be reduced to a single, normative 'developmental' model, hence the need to differentiate the approaches and calibrate the actions. This Report was planned and prepared with this in mind: to offer at the same time a bird's eye view and a qualitative analysis of what the African armies we deal with (and invest in) actually are, and what they are not; to explore what they can (and possibly should) do, and what they cannot; and to present both the regional expert and the layman, both the academic and the practitioner, with an accessible and hopefully stimulating read on a policy issue that matters a great deal for our common security in an increasingly complex, connected and contested world.