Perspectives on African Challenges: Cross Cutting Issues and Policy Implications

Abstract

In October 2008, the Advanced Systems and Concepts Office of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA-ASCO) initiated a two-phase project to assess the nature of security and insecurity in Africa. The first phase was a two-year analytic effort led by Jennifer Perry of DTRA-ASCO, with support from SAIC, entitled "African Security Challenges: Now and Over the Horizon." This phase focused on mapping the terrain of a broad set of security challenges in Africa and exploring their dimensions through a set of workshops. In the second phase, "African Security Challenges: Now and Over the Horizon Capstone," ASCO supported associate professor Jessica Piombo of the Naval Postgraduate School in commissioning a collection of essays that would delve more deeply into a set of issues that overlapped with the ones studied in the previous phase. This project brought together the works of several scholars and built on the findings of the workshops and discussion papers developed during phase one. The essays consider eight under-studied security challenges that have far-reaching implications for the state of the current and emerging African security environment. These essays explicitly consider how the issues manifest within sub-Saharan Africa at multiple levels of analysis (from individual to state to inter-state security), and how the issues intersect with one another. This report presents the main arguments and findings of each essay followed by discussions of their policy implications. The essays are as follows: "Displacement and Militancy," by Sarah Kenyon Lischer; "Small Arms and Light Weapons Availability, Proliferation, and Use," by Robert Muggah and Francis Sang; "Health, Disease and Human Security," by Alex Otieno; "Food Security and Conflict," by Ellen Messer; "Terrorism and Ungoverned Spaces," by Jessica Piombo; "Maritime Security," by Donna Nincic; and "African Militaries in the 21st Century," by Herbert Howe.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA565767

Entities

People

  • Jessica Piombo

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Counterterrorism
  • Environmental Security
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Governments
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • International Security
  • Maritime Security
  • Medical Personnel
  • Military Training
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Public Health
  • Societies
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Urban Areas

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Military History

Technology Areas

  • Space