Untitled Document

This monograph captures the proceedings of a seminar held in Pretoria on 18-19 April 2000, titled "Security in Africa: French and South African Perspectives." The document explores the intersection of national identity, human security, governance, and economic development, with a specific focus on the evolving roles of France and South Africa in African security. It analyzes various conflict zones, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, and West Africa, while evaluating the effectiveness of regional and international intervention frameworks such as the UN, OAU, SADC, and ECOWAS.

• South Africa's emerging national identity is constructed from historical traditions and current policy, characterized by a commitment to democracy, human rights, and a "common African-ness" associated with the African Renaissance.
• South Africa employs a foreign policy described by President Thabo Mbeki as "walking on two legs," acting as a catalytic facilitator between the North and South, Africa and Europe, and the Non-Aligned Movement.
• France's African policy has shifted from a "Gaullist consensus" based on a "culture of exception" and state interventionism toward a liberal paradigm emphasizing market values and a more modest international rank.
• Under the new liberal paradigm, France has moved away from being the "police of Africa" toward a policy of training and logistic support for African troops within multilateral frameworks, such as the RECAMP programme.
• Human security, governance, and development are inextricably linked; the document argues that "bad governance" at both national and international levels (including the Bretton Woods institutions) contributes to insecurity and underdevelopment in Africa.
• Economic factors, including the "profit motive" and the "political economy of war," are primary drivers of prolonged conflicts in countries such as Angola, Sierra Leone, the DRC, Sudan, Burundi, and Rwanda.
• Food insecurity and famine in Africa are primarily the result of political and military factors rather than natural causes, often used as weapons by warlords or influenced by the strategies of international powers.
• The 1998 crisis in Lesotho serves as a case study for the challenges faced by small states and the difficulties of SADC interventions, highlighting a lack of clarity regarding collective regional security strategies.
• The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is characterized as a "world war" involving a complex web of regional actors (including Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia) driven by ethnic, hegemonic, and pecuniary interests.
• The UN's MONUC mission in the DRC faced significant credibility and operational challenges due to a lack of security guarantees from the DRC government and a mismatch between the mission's limited capacity and the high expectations of the parties.
• In West Africa, the ECOMOG intervention in Liberia and Sierra Leone was marred by tensions between Anglophone and Francophone states, with the latter often viewing the force as a vehicle for Nigerian hegemony.
• The OAU's effectiveness in conflict resolution is hampered by its focus on "solidarity" and "respect for sovereignty," as well as chronic funding shortages and a lack of operational capacity.
• The RECAMP programme, a tripartite agreement between France, the UK, and the US, aims to reinforce African peacekeeping capacity through training and equipment, based on the principle of standby force units.
• The document proposes a shift toward "peace maintenance" in situations of state collapse, where the UN establishes a center of gravity to displace warlords and rebuild indigenous authority structures.

APA

Institute for Security Studies (n.d.). Untitled Document. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono50.pdf

Chicago

Institute for Security Studies. Untitled Document. n.d. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono50.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Institute for Security Studies |title=Untitled Document |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono50.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{instituteforsecuritystudiesnduntitled, author = {{Institute for Security Studies}}, title = {{Untitled Document}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/Mono50.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }