AFRICAN REGIONAL POWERS

1

WHAT IS A REGIONAL POWER?

REGION + POWER

Untitled Slide

• Clearly demarcated region
• Leadership within that region

AXIOMS

• Delineated region
• Claims to be sole regional power
• Leads regional governance & sets agenda
• Manages regional security
• Soft power within region
• Accepted within region and beyond
• Strives for greater international role

Corollaries

• Tries to keep other players out
• Creates regional structures (eg. ECOWAS, SADC)
• Most powerful military in the region
• Largest economy in the region
• Regional hegemon

Corollaries

• Regional Hegemon
• e.g. Turkey, Iran, Brazil

Corollaries

• Keeps other players out
• e.g. Turkey - Kurds

Corollaries

• Economic force in the region

Corollaries

• Regional structures
• e.g SADC

Corollaries

• Powerful military
• e.g Iran

Untitled Slide

2

Arab League

Untitled Slide

The Commonwealth

Untitled Slide

Portugese speaking Association

2

2a

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

2b

Christian vs Muslim

Muslim vs Muslim

Untitled Slide

2c

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

2d

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

2e

Note the straight lines

Note the straight lines

3

Untitled Slide

The Second Congo War (also known as the Great War of Africa or the Great African War, and sometimes referred to as the African World War) began in August 1998, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and officially ended in July 2003. However, hostilities have continued since then in the ongoing Lord's Resistance Army insurgency, and the Kivu and Ituri conflicts.


The deadliest war since modern African history, it has directly involved nine African countries, as well as approximately 20 separate armed groups. By 2008, the war and its aftermath had caused 5.4 million deaths, principally through disease and starvation, making the Second Congo War the deadliest conflict worldwide since World War II. Millions more were displaced from their homes or sought asylum in neighbouring countries.

3a

2 largest ethnic groups in South Sudan, soldiers from the Dinka ethnic group aligned with President Kiir and those from the Nuer group supported Riek Machar.

Tribal Conflict

Inkatha

Genocidal mass slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda by members of the Hutu majority; During the approximate 100-day period from April 7 to mid-July 1994, an estimated 500,000–1,000,000 Rwandans were killed

3b

Religious-cum-tribal conflict

Religious-cum-tribal conflict

3c

A prime issue in the tug of war is Western Sahara, though some view it as simply a manifestation of a deeper enmity. At the heart of Algeria's policy is a commitment to the Saharawi right to sovereignty. At times, this appears to be mere rhetoric to excuse the rivalry, but it also seems to reflect a profound anticolonial spirit stemming from Algeria's brutal fight for independence. For Moroccans, maintaining sovereignty over Western Sahara stems from the idea -- ingrained in their collective conscience since their less violent independence from a less protracted French rule -- of "territorial integrity.

4

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

• 70% of UN Peacekeepers
• 50% of UN Peacekeeping operations
• 70% of UN Peacekeeping budget

South Sudan created by UN Resolution

5

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

The African Standby Force (ASF) (French: Force africaine en attente) is an international, continental African, and multidisciplinary peacekeeping force with military, police and civilian contingents that acts under the direction of the African Union. The ASF is to be deployed in times of crisis in Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia serves as the Force's Headquarters. Douala, Cameroon, was in 2011 selected as the site of the AU's Continental Logistics Base (LOGBASE).

The African Standby Force (ASF) (French: Force africaine en attente) is an international, continental African, and multidisciplinary peacekeeping force with military, police and civilian contingents that acts under the direction of the African Union. The ASF is to be deployed in times of crisis in Africa. Addis Ababa, Ethiopia serves as the Force's Headquarters. Douala, Cameroon, was in 2011 selected as the site of the AU's Continental Logistics Base (LOGBASE).

Ezulwini Consensus

6

Africa is now a dense web of RTAs and a classical example of a variable geometry in
Integration. Most African countries have multiple RTA memberships. There are
four major RTAs, with 24 member countries, at different stages of development toward a custom union: the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU),the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), and the East Africa Cooperation (EAC, successor to the defunct East African Community). The first two are simultaneously monetary unions with a common currency—the CFA franc. Within SACU there is a smaller common monetary area.

Four additional large groups of countries are FTAs with long-term goals of becoming customs unions, monetary/economic unions, or common markets: the Economic Community for Central African States (ECCAS), which includes all CEMAC members; the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS), which includes all WAEMU members; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), which includes all SACU members and overlaps with COMESA.

Untitled Slide

ECOWAS

COMESA

SADC

EAC

Arab Maghreb Union

Continental integration, regional integratin and state-building proceeding simultaneously. Unprecedented in world history

7

7a

Weak state

Blood diamond

Stanley meets Livingstone

Aid

7b

Dark continent narratives

Over the past decade six of the world's ten fastest-growing countries were African. In eight of the past ten years, Africa has grown faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even allowing for the knock-on effect of the northern hemisphere's slowdown, the IMF expects Africa to grow by 6% this year and nearly 6% in 2012, about the same as Asia.

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

7c

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Untitled Slide

Arab Spring